On the Geomagnetic Analysis of Cosmic Radiation

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Abstract
The results of an extensive study of trajectories asymptotic to a certain family of periodic orbits in the earth's magnetic field, carried out by means of Bush's differential analyzer, are presented in this paper. The theory of the region of full light, or main cone, is fully discussed. Attention is then restricted to the section of the main cone in the plane of the geomagnetic meridian and it is shown that the north-south asymmetry furnishes the most direct approach to the analysis of the energy spectrum in a wide region, independently of the particles' sign. Further it is shown that the general shape and the minimum of the north-south asymmetry discovered by Johnson in the course of his Mexican experiments are fully accounted for by the action of the earth's field.