Abstract Title
Measurement of Lifetime of Cosmic Ray Muons
Faculty Mentor Name
Darrel Smith
Format Preference
Oral Presentation
Abstract
In this experiment cosmic rays create scintillation light as they pass through a 5-gallon mineral oil/scintillator detector. Some of the low-energy cosmic muons come to rest in the detector and their subsequent decays (μ+→e+ νμ ν ̅e) are observed as a second burst of light. The decay lifetime of 10,392 stopping muons were measured and the mean muon lifetime τ_μ was calculated. The composition of cosmic muons includes both positive and negative muons; however, a small fraction of the μ cosmic rays are captured by hydrogen atoms in the mineral oil (CH2) thus affecting the accepted lifetime of muon decays (2.197 μS). The muon lifetime measured in this experiment, τµ=(2.092 ±0.019)μS, does not differentiate between positive or negative muons and is consistent with the occurrence of μ ̅ capture on hydrogen.
Location
AC1-114
Start Date
4-10-2015 11:45 AM
End Date
4-10-2015 12:00 PM
Measurement of Lifetime of Cosmic Ray Muons
AC1-114
In this experiment cosmic rays create scintillation light as they pass through a 5-gallon mineral oil/scintillator detector. Some of the low-energy cosmic muons come to rest in the detector and their subsequent decays (μ+→e+ νμ ν ̅e) are observed as a second burst of light. The decay lifetime of 10,392 stopping muons were measured and the mean muon lifetime τ_μ was calculated. The composition of cosmic muons includes both positive and negative muons; however, a small fraction of the μ cosmic rays are captured by hydrogen atoms in the mineral oil (CH2) thus affecting the accepted lifetime of muon decays (2.197 μS). The muon lifetime measured in this experiment, τµ=(2.092 ±0.019)μS, does not differentiate between positive or negative muons and is consistent with the occurrence of μ ̅ capture on hydrogen.