COSMICRAYS M

COSMIC
Introduction
from extra terrestrial sources
Cosmic rays arehigh energy charged particles coming
ranges from several tons
reaching the earth. The energy of the cosmic ray particles
that is available
of MeV to about 100eV. The upper limit of this energy is far beyond
in the laboratories. Cosmic rays were discovered by C.T.R. Wilson (England) and
1900 when they observed that
independently by J. Elster and H. Geitel (Germany) in
well-insulated charged electroscopes if left as such gradually lost their charge. It
was believed that this was due to some penetrating radiation passing through the
electroscope that ionised the gas in the latter which neutralized the charge on the
leaves of the electroscope. It was initially thought that the radiation was coming
from the traces of radiative substances present on the earth's crust or in air. However
further research showed that this is not true and confirmed that these rays are coming
from extra terrestrial sources.

Primary cosmic rays

The cosmic rays which are incident upon the outer boundaries of the earth's
atmosphere are called primary cosmic rays. The primary cosmic rays are positively
charged particles with high energy. In fact if they are protons, their minimum energy

should be about 2.5x10'eV. If heavier nuclei are present, thenenergies must be still
higher. It implies that the primary cosmic rays are composed of high energy bare
nuclei. Experiments showed that the primary cosmic rays are composed of high
energy bare nuclei with Z ranging from 1 proton to 26 proton (iron) nuclei.
Nuclei
with higher Z (up to 40) were also discovered in later observations. The primary
cosmic rays consists of 92.9% protons, 6.3% helium nuclei and remaining light
(Z =3-5) medium (Z=6-9) heavy (Z2 10) and very heavy (Z2 20) nuclei. The
energies of primary cosmic rays range from several tons of MeV to about 100eV. It
may noted that highest energy which corresponds to about 10joules. This energy
is
sufficient to raise a mass of I kg through Im against earth's attraction (mgh). No
particle lighter than protons have been observed in the primary cosmic rays nor any
antiprotons or other antiparticle have been observed.
 Cosmic Rays 159

condary cosmi rays

Seco atmosphere
suffer
energy primary cosmic entering the earth's
The high rays on
The atoms) inn
different types f
of nuclear interactions (with nuclei of oxygen and nitrogen
fferent types secondary
layers of the atmosphere and produce different kinds of
the
topmost
the ation
topmost

are called secondary cosmic rays.

T a d i

breaks up.
When a primary cosmic ray particle collides with a nucleus, the latter
these processes
The incident particl
The incident particle
if it is a complex nucleus also breaks up. In and
new articles which are
mostly positrons, u mesons, pions
of electrons,
many article
part
are produced. The very high energy imparted by the incident primary
tons breaks up
which the nucleus
protor

results in an explosive type of nuclear disintegration in in

nucleus thus produced
fragments producing a 'star'. The high energy
into many suffer collisions with other nuclei to produce more secondary
the upper atmosphere
cOsmie ray particles.
main components of
secondary cosmic ray reaching the earth consists of two
The
which is absorbed by 10cm of lead or less
different penetrating powers. Cosmic ray
is known as the
the m o r e penetrating component
soft component,
is known as the positrons
The soft component consists of primarily of electrons,
hard component.
consists mostly of muons (*).
with where as the hard component
photons,
together active
in the secondary cosmic rays undergo radio
Note: Pions (r*, t") present
and produce u*. Some
of the pions
m e a n life 2.6x10 s
with a
decay nuclei to produce nuclear
are absorbed by
produced with very high energies
short m e a n lives (107"s) decay
because of their very
stars. The neutral pions
to produce two high energy gamma
almost immediately after their production
photon in each disintegration.
ray
Cosmic ray showers
Hoffmann and Lindholm in 1928. While
This phenomenon was discovered by
ionization chamber sudden and random
measuring the cosmic ray
intensity with an known as the cosmic ray
was found to
be observed. This is
increase in the intensity the
Bruno Rossi experimentally showed that
burst. In 1931, the Italian physicist
were caused due to the production
increase in cosmic ray intensity
Sudden temporary of the
interaction of c o s m i c rays with the nuclei
of new types of particles by the
counters used
to m e a s u r e the intensity,
Dubstances present in the
Geiger-Muiler counters in a row in the horizontal
Bruno Rossi first placed three that from time to time all the
coincidence. He oDserved
connected them in
Plane and
simultaneousiy to produce a coincidence pulse.
three counters were
actuated
 160 Nuclear Physics, Paricle Physics &
Astropliysics
Obviously no
single particle can actuate all the counters simultaneously, unless it
comes from a horizontal direction. On the other hand if a group of particlesS
is
Simultancously produced at a point above the counter tray, then some of these particles
passing through the three them
counters can actuate simultaneously to producea
coincidence pulse.
Later Rossi
arranged the three counters in atriangle, as shown in figure and placed
a lead plate above the top counter C. Obviously no single particle can actuate
the three counters
all
simultaneously. However, if due to some reason, two or more
particles are
produced simultaneously in the lead plate, then two of these can actuate
the three counters
simultaneously, as will be evident from the figure.
By changing the thickness of the lead plate, it is observed that the rate of
counting changes, as shown in Fig. The counting rate at first increases withcoinidence
leadthickness and then decreases. It reaches a maximum at a increasing
to 2 cm of lead. At
thickness, between 1
larger thickness the coincidence counting rate becomes
constant. The variation of the coincidence almost
rate, as shown in figure is called the Rossi
1ransition curve.

Lead
35
AIIIII P
30
C Scm

OF
)C

(a)
(b) Thickness of lead, cm
Figure 4.1: (a) Discovery of cosmic ray shower; (b) Rossi transition curve
From the above observations, Rossi concluded that cosmic
rays produced a large
number of secondary particles in the lead plate. With
increasing thickness of the
lead plate, the probability of production of the secondary particles increases. When
the thickness becomes larger, the secondary particles begin to get absorbed in the
lead plate, which explains the nature of variation of the coincidence rate as shown in
the figure. The phenomenon is known as cosmic ray shower.
 Cosmic Rays 161

In 1933 P.M.S. Blackett and G. Occhialini

direet evidence of the
ie ray show in
production
metal plates by
of
means
eloud chamber photographs. An examplee
SHch a photograph is shown min figure.
cloud chamber in a figure.
Placing the
magnetic field,
could be shown that both
positive and
negative particles were present in the shower
The rates ot ionization of the shower particles
showed that they consisted mainly of electrons
and positrons.

Figure shows production of shower in a

number of brass plates within a cloud
chamber. The size of the shower (i.e., the
umber of shower particles) increases with
increasing number of plates, i.e., with the
increasing thickness of the material. When the
thickness is very large the size of the shower Figure 4.2: Photograph of
begins to decrease due to absorption of the cosmic ray shower
shower particles, as stated above.
The type of cosmic ray shower described above is known as the electronic or
cascade shower.
The Indian scientist HJ. Bhabha and W. Heitler developed a theory of the cosmic
ray shower in 1937. According to them a very high energetic Y-ray photon
E>>2m, c) of the cosmic ray produces an electron-positron pair in the nuclear
field of the atom of the material through which it travels. Both the electron and
positron emit electromagnetic radiation known as bremsstrahlung due to deceleration.
The photons thus created possess enough energy to produce further electron-positron
pairs each of which again radiates. This goes on until electrons and positrons are
Teduced to so low energy that they fail to create further photons. Thus a bunch of
Clectrons and positrons are obtained. This is known as shower.

ueomagnetic effects of cosmic rays

E

It has been experimentally found that the intensity of cosmic rays vary with

in geomagnetic latitude, geomagnetic longitude and azimuthal angle. All

Variations
these variations can be directly correlated with the effect of the earths magnetic field
0n the cosmic ray intensity and are known as geomagnetic effects.
162 Nuclear Physics, Particle Physics & Astrophystcs

Latitude effect
in geomagnetic latitude is
ne variation of cosmic intensity with variation
ray
known as latitude effect of cosmic rays.
In 1927, the Dutch physicist J. Clay measured the cosmic ray intensity at the sea
between Netherlands
and
latitudes
at different while undertaking a sea voyage
evel
Indonesia which is located near the geomagnetic equator. He observed that the

intensity of cosmic rays increased about 10% from

the equator higher
towards
latitudes. i.e., the cosmic ray intensity is found to be minimum at the equato. The
variation of cosmic ray intensity with latitude at sea level is graphically shown in

figure.

100%

90%
40 0 40
Geomagnetic latitude
Figure 4.3

From the graph the following informations can be obtained.

i) The cosmic ray intensity is minimum at the equator (0° latitude)
(i) From 0° to 40° latitude intensity increases by about 10%.
(ii) For latitudes greater than 40° the variation is small.
iv) At all latitudes above 50°the intensity remains constant.
At different atitudes the intensity varies with latitude differently. Later experiments
confirmed that the change in intensity is 14% at the sea level, 22% at 2000 metres
and 33% at 4360 metres.
Cause of latitude effect
The primary cosmic rays coming from extraterrestrial space is mainly made up of
electrically charged particles of high energy. It is due to the action of the earths
magnetic field they are deflected from their course while coming towards the earth
which causes the latitude variation of the cosmic ray intensity.
 Cosmic Rays 163

itude effect of cosmic rays

osmic ray intens
Cosmic nsity at a given latitude and altitude shows variations with the
de of the place. This is known as the longitude effect. If Im i are the
o n g i t e

and mi
imum and minmum intensities at two longitudes at a particular
maxin
d
autud
d e . then t h e r a t i o m a x- 1 g i v e s the measure o ft h e longitude effect. It a m o u n t s
a l t i t u d e

max

5%
10.
geomagnetic equator and decreases to zero at higher altitudes. t is
at the
that along the geomagnetic equator the intensity is minimum in the Indian
found
found that

Ocean.

The longitude effect is due to the eccentricity of the earths magnetic field caused

by the displacement of the earths geomagnetic field centre.

Altitude effect
The variation of the intensity of the cosmic rays with altitude has been studied in
ietail. The cosmic ray intensity up to 5km altitude has been studied using mountain
12 km, manned baloons upto 18km baloons
sations. Aeroplanes upto
fitted with self recording instruments upto 32km have been used for this purpose.
unmanned
Above this height rockets and satellites have been used.
It has been experimentally found that the intensity rises slowly up to about akm
after which the rise becomes
fast upto about 19 to 24km.
= 51°N
At heights above 24km, the
intensity gradually de-
creases. The variation of in-
A=38° N
tensity with altitude is
shown in figure above.
=3°N
The position of maxi-
mum intensity indicates that
the energetic primary cos-
mic rays on entering the at-
mosphere interact nuclei of 8 16 24 km
Altitude
the
atmosphere and produce
Secondaries whose ionising Figure 4.4
power is much greater than
Lnose of the primaries. Thus primary and secondary cosmic rays are present in abun-

ance at that height. Above the maximum intensity the interaction is less and below
e absorption increases and intensity falls.
 164 Nuclear Plhysics, Particle Physics &Astrophysics

Note: In the above figure variation is drawn at different latitudes (3°N, 3R°N
38N and
51N).
Azimuth effect
The study of number of cosmie ray particles arriVing at different directions revest
that at any azimuth angle more cosmic ray particles reach the earth's surface
veal
the west than the east. This effect is called east-west asymmetry. This effect is
from
maxi.
mum at the equator. At the equator the number of particles arriving from the
st is
14% more than the nunmber of particles arriving from the east.
Explanation of east-west asymmetry
Cosmic ray particles positively charged particles. When this charged par.
are
ticles move across a magnetic field (earths field), the charged particles experiene
magnetic Lorentz force [F =
q (v X B)]. It is because of this force the particles are
deflected towards east.
As a result these
particle would appear to come from the west. The direction of
deflection of charged particles can be easily found out by using
Flemings left hand
rule.

The east-west asymmetry is defined to be 4

where and 1, are the intensities of cosmic rays coming from the west and east

respectively and = +
2

Discovery of positron (antielectron)

Positron is an elementary particle having the same mass and charge of an elec-
tron. The only difference is that electron has negative charge where as positron has
positive charge. The existence of positron was predicted by P.A.M. Diarac in 1931
and experimentally discovered by Carl David Anderson in 1932 and for this Ander
son was awarded the physics Nobel prize in 1936. Positron
was the first evidence of antimatter and was discovered when
Anderson allowed cosmic rays to pass through a cloud cham-
Lead
ber and a lead plate surrounded by a strong magnet is field. In
one of the photographs, he observed two tracks of the same
curvature but in opposite directions (see figure below). The
curve A was identified as due to electron. The track B was at AFigure 4.5
first thought to be due to an electron moving from above down-
 Cosmic Rays 165

wards
But themeasurements
But the meas of energy of particles on the two sides of the lead plate
d that
showed,
that ener
energy above the plate was less than that below the plate. This showed
this
uhat. particle (B) 1s moving from below upwards, just like electron causing the
this par
t was therefore deduced that the track B was caused by a particle of the same
(rack. I t w a s t

softhe electron, but with a positive charge. This particle was called a positron.
m a s s

The m e s o n s

The meson 1s an eiementary particle having mass intermediate between theelec

and proton. There are three types of mesons. They are

on and proton
m

1. T-mesons or pions
2.K- mesons or Kaons and n mesons or eta.

1. T- mesons or pions
were discovered in 1947 in the cosmic rays. They can exist in three
T-mesons
n", T and t . T is a positively pion and t is the negatively charged pion
sates.
having rest mass 273m. T° is called neutral pion having rest mass 264m.

The charged pions are unstable with a mean life of 2.6x10s. They decay into
muon and mu-neutriono

T +
T

bar stands for antiparticle.

The neutral pion has a mean life of 8.7x107"s and decays into two gamma rays.

The charged also unstable with mean life of 2.2x10

muons are
s. They decay
Into electrons and neutrino antineutrino pairs

e +u,+D
e+U, +U,
Rest mass of u is 207m
2. K-mesons or Kaons
Ihere are three types of kaons. They
K- meson is a heavy elementary particle.
de charged kaon K* and two types of neutral kaons (K^ and K9.
 166 Nuclear Physics, Particle Physics & Astrophysics

The rest mass of K* is 966m, and having mean life of 1.2x10 s,

Neutral kaons have the same rest mass equal to 974m.. But their mean lifes.
are
9x10"s and 5x10s respectively.
3. n- meson or eta

There is only one kind of n-meson, that is neutral

n- meson (n") which wae
was
discovered in 1961. It has a rest mass of 1073m,and its mean life is
6x10-19
Van Allen belts
A Van Allen radiation belt is a zone of
energetic charged particles, most of which
originate from the solar wind, that are
captured by and held around a planet by the
magnetic field of the planet. Earth has two such belts and sometimes others
temporarily created. The discovery of belts is credited to James Van may be
earth's belts are known as Van Allen
belts.
Allen, hence
Earths two main belts extend from an
altitude of about 640 km to 58, 000
above the surface in which km
region radiation levels vary. Most of the particles that
form the belts are thought to come
from solar wind and other
rays. By trapping the solar wind, the particles by cosmic
and protect the
magnetic field deflects those
energetic particles
atmosphere from destruction.
Earth's belt contain two localised zones.
1. Inner zone: It consists of
protons of high energy of the order of 100 MeV and
electrons of low energy of the order of IMeV.
2. Outer zone : It is less intense than the inner zone
and consists of only low energy
electrons of the order of 0.1 MeV.
The belts endanger satellites, which must
have their sensitive components protected
with adequate sheilding.
In 2013 NASA reported that the Van Allen
radiation belt, which
probes destructed atransient, third
was observed four weeks until it was discovered by a powerful,
interplanetary shock wave from the sun.
Note: Radiation belts are present around all
field. The moon has no
celestial bodies which have a magnetic
magnetic field of its own and no radiation belt.
Origin of cosmic rays
The source of cosmic radiation has been a
puzzle to the physicists
since its dis-
covery. No known process of nuclear disintegration could produce particles of such
high energies. Several theories have been put forward about the origin of cosmic
rays. Explosion theory, cosmic ray stars, cosmic ray sun etc. are some of them, but
 Co8amic Rays 167

based
could be completely successful. The most promising theories have been
o n ec o u l d .

posibility of acceleration ofparticles by varying magnetic fields, om what

can be accelerated in the betatron. One such theories
s electrons point of favour of
the mean momentum of particles of would be ex
that the
a given charge number in practice.
ted to be proportional to charge number, and this is exactly the case
pected
could
and particles
Weak magnetie fields are known to exist throughout the galaxies,
Weak m a g n e t i c

orbit in such
fields.
very high energies they
if circulated in vast
he cclerated
to are

theóries place the origin of cosmic rays in pulsars.

These are ex
Most recent
account for the sig
remely dense stars which rotate very rapidly and have been to
have very strong
tremely

nals received by
radio telescope. It is thought that these stars must eftect
accelerating
fields which rotate with them and these could have an
magnetie pulsars.
and other nuclei thrown off from the surface of the
on protons

UNIVERSITY MODEL QUESTIONS

Section A

Multiple choice questions

. Cosmic rays were discovered by

d) Penrose
c)C.T.R Wilson
a) Anderson b) Penzias

Cosmic rays are

2 b) positively charged
a) negatively charged
d) none
and b
c) both a
cosmic ray particles is
of the order of
3. The energy of
d) 10-10*"ev
c) 10°eV
b) 10'eV
a) leV
cosmic rays may go upto
4 The Z value of the primary d) 20
c)10
b) 40 level
a) 26 % more at the sea

5. The intensity
variation of cosmic rays is d) 90
c) 33
b) 22
a) 14 % at the equator
effect is
6. The measure of longitude d) 20
c) 10
b) 5
a) 0
suggested by
The name cosmic ray was
c) Penrose d) Anderson
b) Wilson
a) Millikan
at
is maximum
8. Cosmic ray intensity b) geomagnetic equator
a) geomagnetic poles d) none of these
C)in between pole and
equator