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The Trans-Iron Galactic Element Recorder (TIGER) family of instruments is optimized to measure the relative abundances of the rare, ultra-heavy galactic cosmic rays (UHGCRs) with atomic number (Z) Z ≥ 30. Observing the UHGCRs places a premium on exposure that the balloon-borne SuperTIGER achieved with a large area detector (5.6 m2) and two Antarctic flights totaling 87 days, while the smaller (∼1 m2) TIGER for the International Space Station (TIGERISS) aims to achieve this with a longer observation time from one to several years. SuperTIGER uses a combination of scintillator and Cherenkov detectors to determine charge and energy. TIGERISS will use silicon strip detectors (SSDs) instead of scintillators, with improved charge resolution, signal linearity, and dynamic range. Extended single-element resolution UHGCR measurements through 82Pb will cover elements produced in s-process and r-process neutron capture nucleosynthesis, adding to the multi-messenger effort to determine the relative contributions of supernovae (SNe) and Neutron Star Merger (NSM) events to the r-process nucleosynthesis product content of the galaxy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Cosmic Ray Isotope Spectrometer (CRIS) on the Advanced Composition Explorer spacecraft has been operating successfully in a halo orbit about the L1 Lagrange point since late 1997. We report here the isotopic composition of the Galactic cosmic ray (GCR) elements with 29 ≤ Z ≤ 38 derived from more than 20 years of CRIS data. Using a model of cosmic-ray transport in the Galaxy and the solar system (SS), we have derived from these observations the isotopic composition of the accelerated material at the GCR source (GCRS). Comparison of the isotopic fractions of these elements in the GCRS with corresponding fractions in the solar system gives no indication of GCRS enrichment in r -process isotopes. Since a large fraction of core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe) occur in OB associations, the fact that GCRs do not contain enhanced abundances of r -process nuclides indicates that CCSNe are not the principal source of lighter (Z ≤ 38) r -process nuclides in the solar system. This conclusion supports recent work that points to binary neutron-star mergers, rather than supernovae, as the principal source of galactic r -process isotopes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The CALorimetric Electron Telescope CALET is collecting science data on the International Space Station since October 2015 with excellent and continuous performance. Energy is measured with a deep homogeneous calorimeter (1.2 nuclear interaction lengths, 27 radiation lengths) preceded by an imaging pre-shower (3 radiation lengths, 1mm granularity) providing tracking and electron/proton discrimination. Two independent sub-systems identify the charge of the incident particle from proton to iron and above ( 40). CALET measures the cosmic-ray electron + positron flux up to 20 TeV, gamma rays up to 10 TeV, and nuclei up to the PeV scale. In this paper, we report the on-orbit performance of the instrument and summarize the main results obtained during the first 5 years of operation, including the electron + positron energy spectrum and the individual spectra of protons, heavier nuclei and iron. Solar modulation and gamma-ray observations are also concisely reported, as well as transient phenomena and the search for gravitational wave counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The CALorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET) is an astroparticle physics experiment installed on the International Space Station since August 2015. The CALET mission was conceived to address several outstanding questions of high-energy astroparticle physics, like indirect detection of dark matter, the origin of cosmic rays (CRs), their mechanisms of acceleration and galactic propagation, the presence of possible nearby astrophysical CR sources. That can be achieved by precise measurements of the fluxes of CR electrons and γ rays up to the unexplored region above 1 TeV, and the energy spectra and composition of CR nuclei from a few tens of GeV to hundreds of TeV. In order to perform these observations, the instrument combines a thick total absorption PWO crystal calorimeter for energy measurement, a scintillator hodoscope for charge identification and thin imaging tungsten-scintillating fiber calorimeter providing accurate particle tracking and complementary charge measurement. In this paper, we will present an overview of the main CALET results based on the data collected in the first three years of the mission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Iron-60 (60Fe) is a radioactive isotope in cosmic rays that serves as a clock to infer an upper limit on the time between nucleosynthesis and acceleration.We have used the ACE-CRIS instrument to collect 3.55 × 105 iron nuclei,with energies ~195 to ~500mega-electron volts per nucleon, of which we identify 15 60Fe nuclei.The 60Fe/56Fe source ratio is (7.5 ± 2.9) × 10-5. The detection of supernova-produced 60Fe in cosmic rays implies that the time required for acceleration and transport to Earth does not greatly exceed the 60Fe half-life of 2.6 million years and that the 60Fe source distance does not greatly exceed the distance cosmic rays can diffuse over this time, ?1 kiloparsec. A natural place for 60Fe origin is in nearby clusters of massive stars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report new measurements of the elemental energy spectra and composition of galactic cosmic rays during the 2009-2010 solar minimum period using observations from the Cosmic Ray Isotope Spectrometer (CRIS) onboard the Advanced Composition Explorer. This period of time exhibited record-setting cosmic-ray intensities and very low levels of solar activity. Results are given for particles with nuclear charge 5 ≲ Z ≲ 28 in the energy range ~50-550 MeV nucleon-1. Several recent improvements have been made to the earlier CRIS data analysis, and therefore updates of our previous observations for the 1997-1998 solar minimum and 2001-2003 solar maximum are also given here. Formost species, the reported intensities changed by less than ~7%, and the relative abundances changed by less than ~4%. Compared with the 1997-1998 solar minimum relative abundances, the 2009-2010 abundances differ by less than 2σ, with a trend of fewer secondary species observed in the more recent time period. The new 2009-2010 data are also compared with results of a simple "leaky-box" galactic transport model combined with a spherically symmetric solar modulation model. We demonstrate that this model is able to give reasonable fits to the energy spectra and the secondary-to-primary ratios B/C and (Sc+Ti+V)/Fe. These results are also shown to be comparable to a GALPROP numerical model that includes the effects of diffusive reacceleration in the interstellar medium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have measured the isotopic abundances of neon and a number of other species in the galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) using the Cosmic Ray Isotope Spectrometer (CRIS) aboard the ACE spacecraft. Our data are compared to recent results from two-component (Wolf–Rayet material plus solar-like mixtures) Wolf–Rayet (WR) models. The three largest deviations of galactic cosmic ray isotope ratios from solar-system ratios predicted by these models, 12C/16O, 22Ne/20Ne, and 58Fe/56Fe, are very close to those observed. All of the isotopic ratios that we have measured are consistent with a GCR source consisting of ∼20% of WR material mixed with ∼80% material with solar-system composition. Since WR stars are evolutionary products of OB stars, and most OB stars exist in OB associations that form superbubbles, the good agreement of our data with WR models suggests that OB associations within superbubbles are the likely source of at least a substantial fraction of GCRs. In previous work it has been shown that the primary 59Ni (which decays only by electron-capture) in GCRs has decayed, indicating a time interval between nucleosynthesis and acceleration of >105 y. It has been suggested that in the OB association environment, ejecta from supernovae might be accelerated by the high velocity WR winds on a time scale that is short compared to the half-life of 59Ni. Thus the 59Ni might not have time to decay and this would cast doubt upon the OB association origin of cosmic rays. In this paper we suggest a scenario that should allow much of the 59Ni to decay in the OB association environment and conclude that the hypothesis of the OB association origin of cosmic rays appears to be viable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past seven years the Cosmic Ray Isotope Spectrometer (CRIS) on the ACE spacecraft has returned data with an unprecedented combination of excellent mass resolution and high statistics, describing the isotopic composition of elements from lithium through nickel in the energy interval ~ 50 to 500 MeV/nucleon. These data have demonstrated: * The time between nucleosynthesis and acceleration of the cosmic-ray nuclei is at least 105 years. The supernova in which nucleosynthesis takes place is thus not the same supernova that accelerates a heavy nucleus to cosmic-ray energy. * The mean confinement time of cosmic rays in the Galaxy is 15 Myr. * The isotopic composition of the cosmic-ray source is remarkably similar to that of solar system. The deviations that are observed, particularly at 22Ne and 58Fe, are consistent with a model in which the cosmic-ray source is OB associations in which the interstellar medium has solar-system composition enriched by roughly 20% admixture of ejecta from Wolf-Rayet stars and supernovae. * Cosmic-ray secondaries that decay only by electron capture provide direct evidence for energy loss of cosmic rays as they penetrate the solar system. This invited overview paper at ECRS 19 was largely the same as an invited paper presented a month earlier at the 8th Nuclei in the Cosmos Conference in Vancouver. The proceedings of that conference will be published shortly by Elsevier as a special edition of Nuclear Physics A. For further summary of results from CRIS, the reader is referred to URL 〈 〉 and links on that page to CRIS and to Science News. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]