Energy spectrum and interaction characteristics of cosmic rays in the energy range 1013-1016eV

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Abstract
A variety of cosmic ray data are examined to enable tentative conclusions to be drawn about the magnitude of the primary energy spectrum and the nature of high-energy collisions in the energy range 1013-1016 eV. The analysis shows no evidence against the 'high' primary intensities although the present best estimate is a little lower in the range 1014-1015 eV. It is confirmed that if the primaries are mainly protons then the scaling model of high-energy collisions is very unlikely to be valid. For any one set of experimental data a mass composition, varying with energy, can be chosen to restore agreement with the scaling model but different types of data appear to require different compositions. There is thus circumstantial evidence against scaling at the energies in question, but a really firm conclusion must await better experimental data and more comprehensive calculations.
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