Properties of Cosmic-Ray Sulfur and Determination of the Composition of Primary Cosmic-Ray Carbon, Neon, Magnesium, and Sulfur: Ten-Year Results from the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer

Abstract

We report the properties of primary cosmic-ray sulfur (S) in the rigidity range 2.15 GV to 3.0 TV based on 0.38 x 106 sulfur nuclei collected by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer experiment (AMS). We observed that above 90 GV the rigidity dependence of the S flux is identical to the rigidity dependence of Ne-Mg-Si fluxes, which is different from the rigidity dependence of the He-C-O-Fe fluxes. We found that, similar to N, Na, and Al cosmic rays, over the entire rigidity range, the traditional primary cosmic rays S, Ne, Mg, and C all have sizeable secondary components, and the S, Ne, and Mg fluxes are well described by the weighted sum of the primary silicon flux and the secondary fluorine flux, and the C flux is well described by the weighted sum of the primary oxygen flux and the secondary boron flux. The primary and secondary contributions of the traditional primary cosmic-ray fluxes of C, Ne, Mg, and S (even Z elements) are distinctly different from the primary and secondary contributions of the N, Na, and Al (odd Z elements) fluxes. The abundance ratio at the source for S/Si is 0.167 & PLUSMN; 0.006, for Ne/Si is 0.833 & PLUSMN; 0.025, for Mg/Si is 0.994 & PLUSMN; 0.029, and for C/O is 0.836 & PLUSMN; 0.025. These values are determined independent of cosmic-ray propagation.