Measurements of cosmic-ray proton and helium spectra with the PAMELA calorimeter O. Adriani a,b , G.C. Barbarino c,d , G.A. Bazilevskaya e , M. Boezio h , E.A. Bogomolov i , L. Bonechi a,b , M. Bongi b , V. Bonvicini h , S.V. Borisov j,k,l , S. Bottai b , A. Bruno f,g , F. Cafagna g , D. Campana d , R. Carbone d,k , P. Carlson m , M. Casolino j , G. Castellini n , M.P. De Pascale j,k , C. De Santis j , N. De Simone j,k , V. Di Felice j,k , A.M. Galper l , W. Gillard m , L.A. Grishantseva l , G. Jerse h,o , A.V. Karelin l,⇑ , S.Y. Krutkov i , A.N. Kvashnin e , A.A. Leonov l , V.V. Malakhov l , L. Marcelli j , A.G. Mayorov l , S.V. Koldashov l , V.V. Mikhailov l , E. Mocchiutti h , A. Monaco f,g , N. Mori b , G. Osteria d , F. Palma j,k , P. Papini b , M. Pearce m , P. Picozza j,k , C. Pizzolotto h , S. Ricciarini b , L. Rossetto m , R. Sarkar h , M. Simon p , R. Sparvoli j,k , P. Spillantini a,b , Y.I. Stozhkov e , A. Vacchi h , E. Vannuccini b , G.I. Vasilyev i , S.A. Voronov l , Y.T. Yurkin l , J. Wu m,1 , G. Zampa h , N. Zampa h , V.G. Zverev l a University of Florence, Department of Physics, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Florence, Italy b INFN, Sezione di Florence, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Florence, Italy c University of Naples “Federico II”, Department of Physics, I-80126 Naples, Italy d INFN, Sezione di Naples, I-80126 Naples, Italy e Lebedev Physical Institute, RU-119991 Moscow, Russia f University of Bari, Department of Physics, I-70126 Bari, Italy g INFN, Sezione di Bari, I-70126 Bari, Italy h INFN, Sezione di Trieste, I-34149 Trieste, Italy i Ioffe Physical Technical Institute, RU-194021 St. Petersburg, Russia j INFN, Sezione di Rome “Tor Vergata”, I-00133 Rome, Italy k University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Department of Physics, I-00133 Rome, Italy l National Research Nuclear University “MEPhI”, RU-115409 Moscow, Russia m KTH, Department of Physics, and the Oskar Klein Centre for Cosmoparticle Physics, AlbaNova University Centre, SE-10691 Stockholm, Sweden n IFAC, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Florence, Italy o University of Trieste, Department of Physics, I-34147 Trieste, Italy p Universitat Siegen, Department of Physics, D-57068 Siegen, Germany Available online 28 September 2012 Abstract We present a new measurement of the cosmic ray proton and helium spectra by the PAMELA experiment performed using the “thin” (in terms of nuclei interactions) sampling electromagnetic calorimeter. The described method, optimized by using Monte Carlo 0273-1177/$36.00 Ó 2012 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2012.09.029 ⇑ Corresponding author. Address: National Research Nuclear University “MEPhI”, Kashirskoe shosse 31, RU-115409 Moscow, Russia. Tel.: +7 495 7885699 9654; fax: +7 495 3246589. E-mail address: karelin@hotbox.ru (A.V. Karelin). 1 On leave from School of Mathematics and Physics, China University of Geosciences, CN-430074 Wuhan, China. www.elsevier.com/locate/asr Available online at www.sciencedirect.com Advances in Space Research 51 (2013) 219–226