Determination of the K/  ratio from electromagnetic cascade measurements

All the available measurements of the energy spectra of electromagnetic cascades in the cosmic radiation have been combined to predict the muon spectrum at sea level on the basis of all pions or all kaons as the source of the cascades and the muons. Comparison has been made with the muon spectrum measured directly with magnetic spectrographs and, at higher energies, inferred from underground depth intensity measurements, and by interpolation the ratio of production of kaons and pions in high energy interactions has been derived. Under the assumption that the energy spectra of pions and kaons have the same form, the K/π ratio is found to vary from 20 ± 20% at 2 × 104 GeV through 10+15-10% at 7 × 104 GeV to 40 ± 30% at the highest energy studied, 6 × 105 GeV.