Energy spectrum of cosmic protons and helium nuclei by a hybrid measurement at 4300 m a.s.l.

Bartoli, B.; Bernardini, Paolo; X. J., Bi; Bolognino, I.; Branchini, P.; Budano, A.; Calabrese Melcarne, A. K.; Camarri, P.; Cao, Z.; Cardarelli, R.; Catalanotti, S.; Chen, S. Z.; Chen, T. L.; Creti, P.; Cui, S. W.; Dai, B. Z.; D'Amone, Antonio; Danzengluobu,; DE MITRI, Ivan; D'Ettorre Piazzoli, B.; Di Girolamo, T.; Di Sciascio, G.; Feng, C. F.; Feng, Zhaoyang; Feng, Zhenyong; Gou, Q. B.; Guo, Y. Q.; H. H., He; Haibing, Hu; Hongbo, Hu; Iacovacci, M.; Iuppa, R.; Jia, H. Y.; Labaciren,; H. J., Li; Liguori, G.; Liu, C.; Liu, J.; Liu, M. Y.; Lu, H.; L. L., Ma; X. H., Ma; Mancarella, Giovanni; Mari, S. M.; Marsella, Giovanni; Martello, Daniele; Mastroianni, S.; Montini, P.; Ning, C. C.; Panareo, Marco; Panico, B.; Perrone, Lorenzo; Pistilli, P.; Ruggieri, F.; Salvini, P.; Santonico, R.; Sbano, S. N.; Shen, P. R.; Sheng, X. D.; Shi, F.; Surdo, A.; Tan, Y. H.; Vallania, P.; Vernetto, S.; Vigorito, C.; Wang, H.; C. Y., Wu; H. R., Wu; Xue, L.; Yang, Q. Y.; Yang, X. C.; Yao, Z. G.; Yuan, A. F.; Zha, M.; Zhang, H. M.; Zhang, L.; Zhang, X. Y.; Zhang, Y.; Zhao, J.; Zhaxiciren, Zhaxisangzhu; Zhou, X. X.; Zhu, F. R.; Zhu, Q. Q.; Zizzi, G.; Bai, Y. X.; Chen, M. J.; Chen, Y.; Feng, S. H.; Gao, B.; M. H., Gu; Hou, C.; X. X., Li; Liu, J.; Liu, J. L.; Wang, X.; Xiao, G.; Zhang, B. K.; Zhang, S. S.; Zhou, B.; Zuo, X.

doi:10.1088/1674-1137/38/4/045001

The energy spectrum of cosmic Hydrogen and Helium nuclei has been measured below the so-called knee by using a hybrid experiment with a wide field-of-view Cherenkov telescope and the Resistive Plate Chamber (RPC) array of the ARGO-YBJ experiment at 4300 m above sea level. The Hydrogen and Helium nuclei have been well separated from other cosmic ray components by using a multi-parameter technique. A highly uniform energy resolution of about 25% is achieved throughout the whole energy range (100-700 TeV). The observed energy spectrum is compatible with a single power law with index gamma = -2.63 +- 0.06.