A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal

Properties of Heavy Cosmic Nuclei Phosphorus, Chlorine, Argon, Potassium, and Calcium: Results from the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer;




AuthorsAceituno, A.; Aguilar, M.; Alpat, B.; Ambrosi, G.; Anderson, H.; Antunes, J.; Arruda, L.; Attig, N.; Bagwell, C.; Barao, F.; Barbanera, M.; Barrin, L.; Bartoloni, A.; Battiston, R.; Bayyari, A.; Belyaev, N.; Bertucci, B.; Bindi, V.; Bollweg, K.; Bolster, J.; Borchiellini, M.; Borgia, B.; Boschini, M. J.; Bourquin, M.; Brugnoni, C.; Burger, W. J.; Cai, H. Y.; Cai, X. D.; Capell, M.; Casaus, J.; Cassidy, J.; Castellini, G.; Cervelli, F.; Chang, Y. H.; Chen, G. M.; Chen, G. R.; Chen, H.; Chen, H.; Chen, H. S.; Chen, Y.; Cheng, L.; Chou, H. Y.; Chouridou, S.; Choutko, V.; Chung, C. H.; Clark, C.; Coignet, G.; Consolandi, C.; Contin, A.; Corti, C.; Cui, Y. X.; Cui, Z.; Dadzie, K.; D’Angelo, F.; Dass, A.; Delgado, C.; Della Torre, S.; Demirköz, M. B.; Derome, L.; Di Falco, S.; Di Felice, V.; Díaz, C.; Dimiccoli, F.; von Doetinchem, P.; Dong, F.; Dotson, M.; Duranti, M.; Egorov, A.; Ellison, A.; Faldi, F.; Fehr, D.; Feng, J.; Fiandrini, E.; Fisher, P.; Formato, V.; García-López, R. J.; Galdames, A.; Gargiulo, C.; Gast, H.; Ge, T. T.; Gervasi, M.; Ghezzer, L. E.; Giovacchini, F.; Gómez-Coral, D. M.; Gong, J.; Grandi, D.; Graziani, M.; Guidetti, R.; Guan, C.; He, Z. H.; Heber, B.; Hernández-Nicolás, F.; Höfer, L.; Hsieh, T. H.; Hu, J. Y.; Huang, B. W.; Ionica, M.; Incagli, M.; Jia, Yi; Jinchi, H.; Kappe, T.; Karadöller, E.; Karagöz, G.; Kastelic, J.; Kirn, Th.; Kounina, O.; Kounine, A.; Koutsenko, V.; Krasnopevtsev, D.; Kuhlman, A.; Kulemzin, A.; La Vacca, G.; Laudi, E.; Laurenti, G.; Lazzizzera, I.; Lee, H. T.; Lee, S. C.; Li, H. L.; Li, J. H.; Li, J. Q.; Li, M.; Li, Q.; Li, Q.; Li, Q. Y.; Li, S. L.; Li, Z. H.; Liao, P.; Lin, C. H.; Lippert, T.; Liu, P. C.; Liu, Z.; Lu, S. Q.; Luo, J. Z.; Luo, Q.; Luo, S. D.; Luo, Xi; Mañá, C.; Marín, J.; Martínez, G.; Masi, N.; Maurin, D.; Medvedeva, T.; Menchaca-Rocha, A.; Meng, Q.; Mikhailov, V. V.; Molero, M.; Mott, P.; Mussolin, L.; Najafi Jozani, Y.; Nicolaidis, R.; Nikonov, N.; Nozzoli, F.; Ocampo-Peleteiro, J.; Oliva, A.; Orcinha, M.; Palmonari, F.; Paniccia, M.; Pashnin, A.; Pauluzzi, M.; Pelosi, D.; Pensotti, S.; Perez, D.; Pietzcker, P.; Plyaskin, V.; Poluianov, S.; Pridöhl, D.; Puccetti, N.; Qu, Z. Y.; Quadrani, L.; Rafiei, M. M.; Rancoita, P. G.; Rapin, D.; Robyn, E.; Rodríguez-García, I.; Romaneehsen, L.; Rossi, F.; Rozhkov, A.; Rozza, D.; Sagdeev, R.; Schael, S.; Schultz von Dratzig, A.; Schwering, G.; Seo, E. S.; Shan, B. S.; Shukla, A.; Siedenburg, T.; Siemko, A.; Silvestre, G.; Schledewitz, D.; Song, J. W.; Song, X. J.; Sonnabend, R.; Strekalovsky, A.; Strigari, L.; Stuzhin, A.; Su, T.; Sun, Q.; Sun, Z. T.; Tabarroni, L.; Tacconi, M.; Tang, Z. C.; Teoh, J. J.; Tian, J.; Tian, Ye; Tian, Y.; Ting, Samuel C. C.; Ting, S. M.; Tomassetti, N.; Torsti, J.; Ubaldi, A.; Usoskin, I.; Vagelli, V.; Vainio, R.; Väisänen, P.; Valencia-Otero, M.; Valente, E.; Valtonen, E.; Van Hove, E.; Vázquez Acosta, M.; Vecchi, M.; Velasco, M.; Wang, J. C.; Wang, L. Q.; Wang, N. H.; Wang, S.; Wang, X.; Wang, Z. M.; Waqas, M.; Weng, Z. L.; Wu, H.; Wu, Z. B.; Xiao, J. N.; Xiong, R. Q.; Xiong, Y. Z.; Xu, W.; Yan, Q.; Yan, Z. X.; Yang, H. T.; Yang, Y.; Yi, H.; You, Y. H.; Yu, M.; Yu, Y. M.; Yu, Z. Q.; Yuan, B. Q.; Zhang, C.; Zhang, F. Z.; Zhang, J.; Zhang, J. H.; Zhang, Z.; Zhao, P. W.; Zheng, Z. M.; Zhou, H. F.; Zhuang, H. L.; Zhukov, V.; Zou, L. K.; Zuberi, M.; Zuccon, P.; AMS Collaboration

PublisherAmerican Physical Society (APS)

Publication year2026

Journal: Physical Review Letters

Article number241002

Volume136

ISSN0031-9007

eISSN1079-7114

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1103/d2vf-fw3v

Publication's open availability at the time of reportingOpen Access

Publication channel's open availability Partially Open Access publication channel

Web address https://doi.org/10.1103/d2vf-fw3v

Self-archived copy’s web addresshttps://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/527015087

Self-archived copy's licenceCC BY

Self-archived copy's versionPublisher`s PDF


Abstract

We report the unique properties of cosmic phosphorus (P), chlorine (Cl), argon (Ar), potassium (K), and calcium (Ca) fluxes in the GV to TV rigidity range collected by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) on the International Space Station. With a total of one million events collected over 13.5 years, we observed that the rigidity dependencies of the five fluxes are well described by the sums of a primary cosmic ray component and a secondary cosmic ray component. The abundance ratios of all five elements to Si at the source are accurately determined independent of cosmic ray propagation. The source abundance of Ar and Ca (even-𝑍 elements) is larger than P, Cl, and K (odd-𝑍 elements). The secondary components of the P and the Cl fluxes are each ∼1/3 of the F flux, and the secondary components of the Ar, K, and Ca fluxes are each ∼1/2 of the F flux. The twenty elements measured by AMS, from He to Ca and Fe, can be categorized into four classes, two primary and two secondary, based on their rigidity dependence.


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Funding information in the publication
We are grateful for important physics discussions with Igor Moskalenko and Subir Sarkar. We thank former NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin for his dedication to the legacy of the ISS as a scientific laboratory and his decision for NASA to fly AMS as a DOE payload. We also acknowledge the continuous support of the NASA leadership, particularly Ken Bowersox and of the JSC and MSFC flight control teams that have allowed AMS to operate optimally on the ISS for over 14 years. We are grateful for the support of Regina Rameika and Glen Crawford of the DOE including resources from the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. We gratefully acknowledge the strong support from CERN including Fabiola Gianotti, and the CERN IT department. We also acknowledge the continuous support from MIT and its School of Science, Nergis Mavalvala, and the Laboratory for Nuclear Science, Boleslaw Wyslouch. Research has been supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of High Energy Physics, National Natural Science Foundation (NSFC), and Ministry of Science and Technology, National Key R&D Program Grants No. 2022YFA1604802 and No. 2022YFA1604803, NSFC Grants No. 12275158 and No. 12305119, the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, the China Scholarship Council, the provincial governments of Jiangsu, Guangdong, Shandong University, the Shandong Institute of Advanced Technology, and the Sun Yat–sen University Science Foundation, China; Research Council of Finland, Project No. 321882, and Finnish Academy of Sciences and Letters, Grant No. 301123, Finland; CNRS/IN2P3 and CNES, France; DLR under Grants No. 50OO2404, and No. 50OO2501, and computing support on the JARA Partition of the RWTH Aachen supercomputer, Germany; INFN and ASI under ASI-INFN Agreement No. 2019-19-HH.0, its amendments, No. 2021-43-HH.0, and ASI-University of Perugia Agreement No. 2019-2-HH.0, and the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR) through the program “Dipartimenti di Eccellenza 2023-2027” (Grant SUPER-C), Italy; SECIHTI Grant No. CBF-2025-I-1672 and UNAM Grant DGAPA PAPIIT No. IN111525, Mexico; NWO under Grant No. 680-1-004, Netherlands; FCT under Grant No. 2024.00992.CERN, Portugal; CIEMAT, and IAC CDTI, MCIN-AEI, and under Grants No. PID2022-137810NB-C21/C22, No. PCI2023-145945-2, and No. PCI2023-145961-2 funded by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, Spain; the Fondation Dr. Manfred Steuer, Switzerland; Academia Sinica, the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), formerly the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), under Grants No. 114-2123-M-001-007 and No. 114-2112-M-001-029, High Education Sprout Project by the Ministry of Education at National Cheng Kung University, former Presidents of Academia Sinica Yuan-Tseh Lee and Chi-Huey Wong and former Ministers of NSTC (formerly MOST) Maw-Kuen Wu and Luo-Chuan Lee, Taiwan; the Turkish Energy, Nuclear and Mineral Research Agency (TENMAK) under Grant No. 2020TAEK(CERN)A5.H1.F5-26, Türkiye; and NSF Grant No. 2411633 and ANSWERS proposals No. 2149809, No. 2149810, and No. 2149811, LWS NASA Grant/Cooperative Agreement No. 80NSSC20K1819, and FINESST NASA Grant No. 80NSSC21K1392, USA.


Last updated on 13/08/2026 08:42:18 AM