Search for anisotropies in the underground cosmic-ray muon flux

Thesis/Dissertation · Sun Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1989

OSTI ID:6578548

Corbato, S C

Over the last decade, several very and ultra high energy gamma ray detectors (E > 0.5 TeV) have reported observations of air showers exhibiting hadronic characteristics from the direction of two binary systems, Cygnus X-3 and Hercules X-1. In addition, two underground detectors, NUSEX and Soudan, observed muon signals correlated with the 4.8 hour x-ray period of Cygnus X-3. Either effect, if substantiated, would imply the existence of either a previously undetected light, neutral hadron or an enhanced photon-nucleon interaction above center-of-mass energies of 100 GeV. From January 1985, until May 1987, the author has searched for enhancements in the underground muon flux with a liquid scintillation detector in the Homestake Gold Mine, Lead, South Dakota. A survey of the Northern sky yielded no evidence for a time independent point source. The upper limit on this flux was 1.0 {times} 10{sup {minus}11} cm{sup {minus}2} s{sup {minus}1}. No phase correlated or short term effect from the region about Cygnus X-3 was observed. The Homestake upper limit for the NUSEX active phase interval was 1.1 {times} 10{sup {minus}12} cm{sup {minus}2} s{sup {minus}1}. No signal was detected at the time of the Soudan muon burst coincident with the October, 1985 radio flare. He also observed no enhancement from the direction of Hercules X-1 (F < 5.4 {times} 10{sup {minus}12} cm{sup {minus}2} s{sup {minus}1}). Two other potential sources were examined. Thus an upper limit can be set on the number of Galactic sources of underground muon progenitors at (12/{epsilon}), where {epsilon} is the typical long term duty cycle of these sources.

• Research Organization: Pennsylvania Univ., Philadelphia, PA (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6578548
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640101* -- Astrophysics &amp; Cosmology-- Cosmic Radiation
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ANISOTROPY
BINARY STARS
CHARGED PARTICLE DETECTION
COSMIC MUONS
COSMIC RADIATION
COSMIC RADIO SOURCES
COSMIC RAY FLUX
COSMIC SHOWERS
DETECTION
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
FERMIONS
GAMMA DETECTION
IONIZING RADIATIONS
LEPTONS
LIMITING VALUES
LIQUID SCINTILLATION DETECTORS
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
MUON DETECTION
MUONS
ORIGIN
PULSARS
RADIATION DETECTION
RADIATION DETECTORS
RADIATION FLUX
RADIATIONS
SCINTILLATION COUNTERS
SECONDARY COSMIC RADIATION
SHOWERS
STARS
UNDERGROUND FACILITIES