A Study of Underground Muons in the Soudan II Detector

Physics

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Muons

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Available from UMI in association with The British Library. Requires signed TDF. An 1100 tonne fine grained tracking calorimeter, designed by the Soudan II collaboration, is being constructed in a purpose-built underground laboratory in northern Minnesota, U.S.A. The experiment is situated at a depth of 2090 metres of water equivalent, latitude 47.78^circ N and longitude 92.20^circ W. During the period from March to August 1989, an equivalent live-time of 0.221 years, the completed 350 tonnes of the detector was used to collect a sample of 1,222 cosmic ray data runs. Fast track reconstruction software has been developed, which determines underground muon trajectories to ~eq{+/-}1.0^ circ. The strict quality control of data imposed prior to a physics analysis is described. After data reduction, the sample to be analysed contained 452,708 reconstructed single muon tracks. This sample has been used to investigate the possibility that the astronomical point source, Cygnus X-3, is an emitter of high energy muons. The integrated excess muon flux has been determined by using the data to calculate the expected muon rate from the source direction. A 2.1sigma overall excess has been observed within a 3^circ half-angle cone centred on the source, which corresponds to a 90% confidence level upper limit on the integrated excess flux of (2.3 +/- 0.1) times 10^{-11} cm^{-2} s^ {-1}. Enhancements of 2.0sigma and 2.1sigma have also been observed in two a priori selected phase bands; (0.15-0.30) and (0.65-0.90). The 90% confidence level upper limits on the integrated excess flux within these bands are: (6.3 +/- 0.1) times 10^{-11} cm^ {-2}s^{-1} for phases (0.15-0.30) and (4.7 +/- 0.1) times 10^{ -11} cm^{-2}s ^{-1} for phases (0.65 -0.90). Cygnus X-3 underwent two giant radio outbursts in June and July 1989. Evidence has been found for a 3.18 sigma increase in the muon rate, within the two chosen phase bands, subsequent to the initial activity in the radio region.

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