Effect of the Mott cross section on charge identification in the HEAO-3 heavy cosmic ray experiment

Abstract

Corrections to the Z² dependence of ion chamber and Cherenkov response due to the Mott cross section are calculated for the HEAO-3 Heavy Cosmic Ray Experiment. The effect of the production and escape of high energy secondary electrons on detector response is accounted for by numerical calculations. These secondary electron effects are shown to influence the size of the non-Z² effects and thus affect the charge-assignments and detector resolution. The Bloch and relativistic Bloch corrections are not included in the results presented here but may be combined with the Mott corrections when the Bloch corrections are properly evaluated.