The Angular and Lateral Distribution Functions for the Nucleon Component of the Cosmic Radiation

Abstract

A method is developed, whereby the angular and radial distribution functions for the nucleon component of the cosmic radiation in the atmosphere may be obtained in terms of the moments of the distributions. Essentially the method consists of an expansion of the unknown distribution functions in a series of derivatives of the Dirac delta-function, whose coefficients are identified with the angular and radial moments. The method gives results identical with those obtained by a more tedious procedure, and is of general applicability in reconstructing distribution functions when only their moments are known.