A new universal cosmic-ray knee near the magnetic rigidity 10 TV with the NUCLEON space observatory

astro-ph.HE

/ Authors

E. Atkin, V. Bulatov, V. Dorokhov, N. Gorbunov, S. Filippov, V. Grebenyuk, D. Karmanov, I. Kovalev, I. Kudryashov, A. Kurganov

and 11 more authors

M. Merkin, A. Panov, D. Podorozhny, D. Polkov, S. Porokhovoy, V. Shumikhin, A. Tkachenko, L. Tkachev, A. Turundaevskiy, O. Vasiliev, A. Voronin

/ Abstract

Data from the NUCLEON space observatory give a strong indication of the existence of a new universal cosmic ray "knee", which is observed in all groups of nuclei, including heavy nuclei, near a magnetic rigidity of about 10\,TV. Universality means the same position of the knee in the magnetic rigidity scale for all groups of nuclei. The knee is observed by both methods of measurement of particles energy implemented in the NUCLEON observatory---the calorimetric method and the kinematic method KLEM. This new cosmic ray "knee" is probably connected with the limit of acceleration of cosmic rays by some generic or nearby source of cosmic rays.