The energy dependence of the fragmentation parameters and mean free paths of cosmic-ray nuclei with

Abstract

The fragmentation parameters and interaction mean free paths for VH- and H-type cosmic-ray nuclei have been measured as functions of energy in nuclear emulsions. It is found that they are essentially independent of energy over the range from 100 MeV/n to 30 GeV/n. The mean free paths of the secondary nuclei produced in observed interactions also have been measured. With two major exceptions, the values of the mean free paths are found to be consistent with an overlap model for nuclear interactions. The value obtained for the secondary L-type nuclei appears to be significantly shorter than that expected from the model calculations, while that for the primary VH nuclei appears to be significantly longer.