Direct observations of hadronic cosmic rays with CALET and other instruments

Abstract

This talk will focus on the measurement of energy spectra for cosmic-ray protons, helium, and heavier nuclei with electromagnetic calorimeters such as CALET. The particle showers resulting from nuclear interactions of these species inside the detector are considerably different from the pure electromagnetic showers of electrons and photons, necessitating some differences in event reconstruction and analysis. The process of Bayesian unfolding will be discussed in the context of combining real observations with simulated instrument responses to produce energy spectra. In the past decade+, the precision and range of direct cosmic-ray measurements have been improved signfiicantly, and features in the spectra of various elemental species are emerging. The acceleration and transport of cosmic rays and the nature of primary and secondary species will be summarized. Results for various elemental spectra from CALET as well as DAMPE, AMS-02, and others will be shown and their implications for cosmic-ray astrophysics will be discussed.