Cosmic Ray Composition in the Second Knee Region as Measured by the TALE Hybrid Detector

The Telescope Array Low-energy Extension (TALE) experiment is a hybrid air shower detector for the observation of air showers induced by cosmic rays with energy above 10¹⁶ eV. The TALE detector consists of a Fluorescence Detector (FD) station with 10 FD telescopes located at the TA Middle Drum FD Station (itself made up of 14 FD telescopes), and a Surface Detector (SD) array made up of 80 scintillation counters, including 40 with 400 m spacing and 40 with 600 m spacing. A triggering system for the TALE-SD using an external trigger from the TALE-FD, a so-called hybrid trigger, allows for a lower energy threshold. The TALE hybrid trigger system has been working since 2018. Here we present an estimate of the performance of hybrid detection using a Monte Carlo simulation, and a first measurement of the cosmic ray composition and spectrum using the TALE-Hybrid detector.