UNI-MB - logo
UMNIK - logo
 
E-resources
Full text
Peer reviewed Open access
  • The Unreasonable Effectiven...
    Sokolsky, P.; D’Avignon, R.

    Journal of experimental and theoretical physics, 04/2022, Volume: 134, Issue: 4
    Journal Article

    We review all existing air-fluorescence measurements of the elongation rate of extensive air showers (slope of mean EAS shower maximum X max vs. log of shower energy E ) above 10 17 eV. We find remarkable agreement for all current and historic experiments over a 30 yr period for the energy range from 10 17 to 3 × 10 18 eV. The mean elongation rate in this energy interval is near 80 g/cm 2 /decade. Above this energy, experiments in the Northern hemisphere are in good agreement with an average elongation rate of 48 ± 10 g/cm 2 /decade while Southern hemisphere experiments have a flatter elongation rate of 26 ± 2 g/cm 2 /decade. We point out that, given the agreement at lower energies, possible systematic reasons for this difference are unlikely. Given this, the world elongation rate data alone may indicate a composition difference of UHECR in the Northern and Southern hemisphere and thus a diversity of UHECR sources in the Northern and Southern sky.