Observation of muon intensity variations by season with the MINOS far detector
Physical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology 81:1 (2010)
Abstract:
The temperature of the upper atmosphere affects the height of primary cosmic ray interactions and the production of high-energy cosmic ray muons which can be detected deep underground. The MINOS far detector at Soudan, MN, has collected over 67×106 cosmic ray induced muons. The underground muon rate measured over a period of five years exhibits a 4% peak-to-peak seasonal variation which is highly correlated with the temperature in the upper atmosphere. The coefficient, αT, relating changes in the muon rate to changes in atmospheric temperature was found to be αT=0.873±0. 009(stat)±0.010(syst). Pions and kaons in the primary hadronic interactions of cosmic rays in the atmosphere contribute differently to αT due to the different masses and lifetimes. This allows the measured value of αT to be interpreted as a measurement of the K/π ratio for Ep 7TeV of 0.12-0.05+0.07, consistent with the expectation from collider experiments. © 2010 The American Physical Society.Measurements of forward proton production with incident protons and charged pions on nuclear targets at the CERN proton synchroton
Physical Review C - Nuclear Physics 82:4 (2010)
Abstract:
Measurements of the double-differential proton production cross-section d2σ/dpdΩ in the range of momentum 0.5 GeV/c p ≤ 8.0 GeV/c and angle 0.05 rad ≤ θ < 0.25 rad in collisions of charged pions and protons on beryllium, carbon, aluminium, copper, tin, tantalum, and lead are presented. The data were taken with the large acceptance HARP detector in the T9 beam line of the CERN Proton Synchrotron. Incident particles were identified by an elaborate system of beam detectors and impinged on a target of 5% of a nuclear interaction length. The tracking and identification of the produced particles was performed using the forward spectrometer of the HARP experiment. Results are obtained for the double-differential cross-sections mainly at four incident beam momenta (3, 5, 8, and 12 GeV/c). Measurements are compared with predictions of the GEANT4 and MARS Monte Carlo generators. © 2010 The American Physical Society.Neutrino and antineutrino inclusive charged-current cross section measurements with the MINOS near detector
PHYSICAL REVIEW D 81:7 (2010) ARTN 072002
Observation in the MINOS far detector of the shadowing of cosmic rays by the sun and moon
Astroparticle Physics (2010)
Search for muon-neutrino to electron-neutrino transitions in MINOS.
Phys Rev Lett 103:26 (2009) 261802