Isotopic Composition of the Anomalous Low Energy Cosmic Ray Nitrogen and Oxygen

Abstract

The isotopic composition of the enhanced fluxes of cosmic ray nitrogen and oxygen observed below 30 MeV/nuc is of interest, whether the nuclei are a sample from some nearby galactic source region that is underabundant in carbon, or a sample of the neutral interstellar medium. Enhanced fluxes in the 6 to 12 MeV/nuc energy interval were measured over a two year period with the Caltech Electron/Isotope Spectrometer on IMP-7. The observed low-energy nitrogen and oxygen nuclei are predominantly N-14 and O-16, with upper limits (84% confidence level) of N-15/N below 0.26, O-17/0 below 0.13, and O-18/0 below 0.12 for other isotopes in the 6-12 MeV/nuc energy interval. The implications of these results for the origin of the enhanced nitrogen and oxygen fluxes are discussed.

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