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arXiv · 2408.17224

Hadronic cross section measurements with the DAMPE space mission using 20GeV-10TeV cosmic-ray protons and $^4$He

Abstract

Precise direct cosmic-ray (CR) measurements provide an important probe to study the energetic particle sources in our Galaxy, and the interstellar environment through which these particles propagate. Uncertainties on hadronic models, ion-nucleon cross sections in particular, are currently the limiting factor towards obtaining more accurate CR ion flux measurements with calorimetric space-based experiments. We present an energy-dependent measurement of the inelastic cross section of protons and helium-4 nuclei (alpha particles) on a Bi$_4$Ge$_3$O$_{12}$ target, using 88 months of data collected by the DAMPE space mission. The kinetic energy range per nucleon of the measurement points ranges from 18 GeV to 9 TeV for protons, and from 5 GeV/n to 3 TeV/n for helium-4 nuclei. Our results lead to a significant improvement of the CR flux normalisation. In the case of helium-4, these results correspond to the first cross section measurements on a heavy target material at energies above 10 GeV/n.

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F. Alemanno, Q. An, P. Azzarello, F. C. T. Barbato, P. Bernardini, X. J. Bi, I. Cagnoli, M. S. Cai, E. Casilli, E. Catanzani, J. Chang, D. Y. Chen, J. L. Chen, Z. F. Chen, P. Coppin, M. Y. Cui, T. S. Cui, Y. X. Cui, H. T. Dai, A. De Benedittis, I. De Mitri, F. de Palma, A. Di Giovanni, Q. Ding, T. K. Dong, Z. X. Dong, G. Donvito, D. Droz, J. L. Duan, K. K. Duan, R. R. Fan, Y. Z. Fan, F. Fang, K. Fang, C. Q. Feng, L. Feng, J. M. Frieden, P. Fusco, M. Gao, F. Gargano, K. Gong, Y. Z. Gong, D. Y. Guo, J. H. Guo, S. X. Han, Y. M. Hu, G. S. Huang, X. Y. Huang, Y. Y. Huang, M. Ionica, L. Y. Jiang, Y. Z. Jiang, W. Jiang, J. Kong, A. Kotenko, D. Kyratzis, S. J. Lei, W. H. Li, W. L. Li, X. Li, X. Q. Li, Y. M. Liang, C. M. Liu, H. Liu, J. Liu, S. B. Liu, Y. Liu, F. Loparco, C. N. Luo, M. Ma, P. X. Ma, T. Ma, X. Y. Ma, G. Marsella, M. N. Mazziotta, D. Mo, X. Y. Niu, X. Pan, A. Parenti, W. X. Peng, X. Y. Peng, C. Perrina, E. Putti-Garcia, R. Qiao, J. N. Rao, A. Ruina, R. Sarkar, P. Savina, A. Serpolla, Z. Shangguan, W. H. Shen, Z. Q. Shen, Z. T. Shen, L. Silveri, J. X. Song, M. Stolpovskiy, H. Su, M. Su, H. R. Sun, Z. Y. Sun. 2025-01-07. Hadronic cross section measurements with the DAMPE space mission using 20GeV-10TeV cosmic-ray protons and $^4$He. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.111.012002

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