Interpretation of cosmic ray muon data in the light of results from the intersecting storage ring experiment

Abstract
The latest ISR data on p-p collisions at effective energies approaching 2*103 GeV have been used together with information on the primary spectrum to calculate the expected charge ratio of cosmic ray muons in the near vertical direction. It is found that the expected ratio is near to that observed for Emu approximately=30 GeV without the necessity of assuming a breakdown in the validity of the limiting fragmentation hypothesis although the accelerator data are still not sufficiently precise to deny some small lack of validity. If the limiting fragmentation hypothesis continues to be valid at energies above 2*102 GeV and if the scaling hypothesis is applicable above 2*103 GeV, in particular if kaon production continues at the same rate, then it is necessary to assume that the relative flux of heavy nuclei in the primary cosmic ray beam increases somewhat with energy. Previous analysis of the muon charge ratio are examined and the reasons for apparently discordant conclusions are indicated.