A Deduction of the High Energy Spectrum of Cosmic-Ray Primary Nucleons from the Observed Muon Spectrum

Abstract

Fermi's theory of pion production is extended to treat collisions of nucleons with air nuclei. The energy distribution of the created pions and their daughter muons is approximately calculated, and is applied to correlate the observed muon spectrum in the energy range 10-100 Bev with the primary nucleon spectrum. The results and limitations of this procedure are discussed.