EAS EXPERIMENT ON BOARD OF THE AIRBUS A380 J. N. Capdevielle, F. Cohen, PCC, College de France K. Jedrzejczak, B. Szabelska, J. Szabelski, T. Wibig The Andrzej Soltan Institute for Nuclear Studies, Cosmic Ray Laboratory, Lodz, Poland

EAS EXPERIMENT ON BOARD OF THE AIRBUS A380 J. N. Capdevielle, F. Cohen, PCC, College de France K. Jedrzejczak, B. Szabelska, J. Szabelski, T. Wibig The Andrzej Soltan Institute for Nuclear Studies, Cosmic Ray Laboratory, Lodz, Poland

The idea is to use test flights of the airbus A380 to load its internal space by the Cosmic Ray detectors. EAS EXPERIMENT ON BOARD OF THE AIRBUS A380 Altitude: 10 km, 250 g/cm 2 Exposure: ,000 hours Size: 70m x 6m (double decker) Max. Weight: ~80 tons

EAS EXPERIMENT ON BOARD OF THE AIRBUS A380 We want to register: ● EAS ● single energetic hadrons (protons) at the altitude of 10 km. EAS: iron group energy spectrum can be determined up to about 10 7 GeV single proton: energy spectrum up to about 10 6 GeV can be determined.

EAS EXPERIMENT ON BOARD OF THE AIRBUS A380 The detectors would register: ● soft component (counts) ● muons (counts) ● Hadrons (energy weighted counts) Detectors would be distributed over the upper passenger area m m

EAS EXPERIMENT ON BOARD OF THE AIRBUS A380 EAS simulations: electron 10 km CORSIKA v simulations

EAS EXPERIMENT ON BOARD OF THE AIRBUS A380 EAS simulations: Average gamma and electron 10 km CORSIKA v simulations Differences proton/iron are similar for gammas and electrons

EAS EXPERIMENT ON BOARD OF THE AIRBUS A380 EAS simulations: Average EAS hadron 10 km CORSIKA v simulations Distibutions for proton and iron are "parallel"

EAS EXPERIMENT ON BOARD OF THE AIRBUS A380 Iron EAS selection method Iron EAS are regularly developed Figure presents for 10 6, 10 7 and 10 8 GeV separately for each EAS: ratio of average electron density near to the core (1-5 m) to density at m from the core vs. Average density at m Protons are in red Iron are in blue proton EAS undergo large fluctuations

EAS EXPERIMENT ON BOARD OF THE AIRBUS A380 Iron EAS selection method Iron EAS are regularly developed Figure presents for 10 6, 10 7 and 10 8 GeV separately for each EAS: ratio of average electron density near to the core (1-5 m) to density at m from the core vs. Average density at m Protons are in red Iron are in blue proton EAS undergo large fluctuations

EAS EXPERIMENT ON BOARD OF THE AIRBUS A380 Detector unit Weights: scintillators 2 x 5 kg carbon 226 kg lead 283 kg polyethylene 83 kg TOTAL: about 700 kg / unit Hadron interactions: above lead - probability ~0.7 in lead - probability ~0.5

EAS EXPERIMENT ON BOARD OF THE AIRBUS A380 Hadron detection Secondary hadron interacting with (destroing) lead nucleus produces neutrons of MeV energy range (on average about 40 neutrons per interaction). Hadron and hadron energy would be register thanks to its ● interaction inside a detector ● secondary hadron multiplicity produced in that interaction Neutron detector (counters) can have efficiency of about 3% (i.e. Moderator and a few 3 He counters). Example (average numbers): 100 GeV vertical proton, interaction in carbon block probability 0.7, average hadron multiplcity 10, average number of neutrons 300, average number of 3He counters counts 12.

EAS EXPERIMENT ON BOARD OF THE AIRBUS A380 Hadron detection Hadron multiplicity CORSIKA v simulations EAS hadrons interact in carbon and produce large number of hadrons in the detector Hadrons produced in detector by EAS hadrons A=2.7, B=-0.03, C=0.167 D=-7, F=7.2, G=0.127 C.J.Almer et al. UA5 Collab.,Phys. Letters B, 167 (1986), 476

EAS EXPERIMENT ON BOARD OF THE AIRBUS A380 Cosmic Ray spectra and limits (example) CR spectra following: Jorg R. Horandel On the Knee in the Energy Spectrum of Cosmic Ray', astro-ph/ Oct. 2002, assuming the knee at 2 x 10 6 GeV/particles.

EAS EXPERIMENT ON BOARD OF THE AIRBUS A380 Cosmic Ray spectra and limits (example) (in numbers for 5000h) Energy (GeV) x x x Rigidity Energy Mass Mas s Rigidity Energy the knee depends on: Expeted surviving proton number Expeted EAS number of CR iron origin

EAS EXPERIMENT ON BOARD OF THE AIRBUS A380 Conclusions Set of compact detectors distributed throughout passenger cabin of the Airbus A380 during its test flights would provide opportunity of Cosmic Ray registration with energies around the knee : proton component (as registration of particles surviving without interaction + veto from the array) up to the knee region heavy component energy spectra up to several times the knee energy with the discrimination between different models of mass compositions above the knee.