Measurement of High Energy Phosphorus Cosmic Rays with the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer on the International Space Station
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bolster-jbolster-phd-physics-2026-thesis.pdf
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Author(s)
Bolster, Jack Henry
Advisor(s)
Ting, Samuel C.C.
Date Issued
February 2026
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
Cosmic ray nuclei encode the physics of Galactic production, acceleration, transport, and nuclear fragmentation. This thesis presents the first high-precision measurement of the cosmic ray phosphorus (P) flux with the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) on the International Space Station (ISS), spanning rigidities from R=2.15 GV to R=1.2 TV using data taken during the first 13.5 years of AMS operation (May 2011 to November 2024). Unexpectedly, the results show that the P flux is well described by the sum of a primary cosmic ray component (proportional to the Si flux) and a secondary cosmic ray component (proportional to the F flux) allowing for the direct model-independent determination of the P/Si abundance ratio at the source.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
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