Cosmic Rays from the Knee to the Ankle

Andreas Haungs

Published 2015-04-08Version 1

Investigations of the energy spectrum as well as the mass composition of cosmic rays in the energy range of PeVto EeV are important for understanding both, the origin of the galactic and the extragalactic cosmic rays. Recently, three modern experimental installations (KASCADE-Grande, IceTop, Tunka-133), dedicated to investigate this primary energy range, have published new results on the all-particle energy spectrum. In this short review these results are presented and the similarities and differences discussed. In addition, the effects of using different hadronic interaction models for interpreting the measured air-shower data will be examined. Finally, a brief discussion on the question if the present results are in agreement or in contradiction with astrophysical models for the transition from galactic to 10 pagesextragalactic origin of cosmic rays completes this paper.