SuperTIGER instrument abundances of galactic cosmic rays for the charge interval 41⩽Z⩽56

Date

2022-05-10

Department

Program

Citation of Original Publication

N. E. Walsh, Y. Akaike, W. R. Binns et al., SuperTIGER instrument abundances of galactic cosmic rays for the charge interval 41⩽Z⩽56, Advances in Space Research, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2022.04.063

Rights

This work was written as part of one of the author's official duties as an Employee of the United States Government and is therefore a work of the United States Government. In accordance with 17 U.S.C. 105, no copyright protection is available for such works under U.S. Law.
Public Domain Mark 1.0

Subjects

Abstract

We report preliminary elemental abundance results from the 55-day long-duration-balloon flight of SuperTIGER (Super Trans-Iron Galactic Element Recorder) during the 2012–2013 austral summer. SuperTIGER measured the relative abundances of Galactic cosmic-ray (GCR) nuclei with high statistical precision and well resolved individual element peaks from 10Ne to 40Zr. SuperTIGER also made exploratory measurements of the relative abundances up to 56Ba. Although the statistics are low for elements heavier than 40Zr, we present, for the first time, relative abundance measurements of charges with individual element resolution. GCR measurements up to 40Zr support a source acceleration model where supernovae in OB associations preferentially accelerate refractory elements that are more readily embedded in interstellar dust grains than volatiles. In addition, injection into the GCR for both refractory and volatile elements appears to follow a charge dependence consistent with their grain sputtering cross sections. By extending the GCR measurement range past 40Zr, we can begin to further constrain these models.