Published April 1, 2003 | Version v1
Journal article

Energy spectra of atmospheric muons measured with the CAPRICE98 balloon experiment

  • 1. R.L. Golden Particle Astrophysics Lab, Box 3 PAL, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico 88003 (United States)
  • 2. Code 661, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771 (United States)
  • 3. University of Roma 'Tor Vergata' and Sezione INFN di Roma II, Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, I-00133 Rome (Italy)
  • 4. INFN-Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, Via E. Fermi 40, CP 13, I-00044 Frascati (Italy)
  • 5. University of Firenze and Sezione INFN di Firenze, Largo E. Fermi 2, I-50125 Firenze (Italy)
  • 6. University of Bari and Sezione INFN di Bari, Via Amendola 173, I-70126 Bari (Italy)
  • 7. Universitaet Siegen, 57068 Siegen (Germany)
  • 8. Centre des Recherches Nucleaires, BP20, F-67037 Strasbourg Cedex (France)
  • 9. Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), AlbaNova University Center (SCFAB), S-10691 Stockholm (Sweden)
  • 10. University of Trieste and Sezione INFN di Trieste, Via A. Valerio 2, I-34147 Trieste (Italy)

Description

The measurement of the atmospheric muon spectrum is currently of great interest because of the study of atmospheric neutrinos and the claim of neutrino oscillations made in 1998 by the Super-Kamiokande Collaboration. A measurement of the muon flux is an indirect measure of the neutrino flux. Therefore, it can be used to improve the calculation of the atmospheric neutrino flux, which in turn can be compared with the observed neutrino rates in underground detectors. This article reports a new measurement of the μ+ and μ- spectra at several atmospheric depths in the momentum ranges 0.3-20 GeV/c and 0.3-40 GeV/c, respectively. The data were collected by the balloon-borne experiment CAPRICE98 during the ascent of the payload on 28 May 1998 from Fort Sumner, N. M. The experiment used the NMSU-WIZARD/CAPRICE 98 balloon-borne magnet spectrometer equipped with a gas ring imaging Cherenkov detector and a silicon-tungsten calorimeter

Additional details

Identifiers

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Physical Review. D, Particles Fields
Journal Volume
67
Journal Issue
7
Journal Page Range
p. 072003-072003.15
ISSN
0556-2821
CODEN
PRVDAQ

Optional Information

Notes
(c) 2003 The American Physical Society