An underground search for an excess muon flux from the direction of Cygnus X-3

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

OSTI ID:6599582

Kochocki, J A

During the period July, 1987 through March, 1988 (lifetime 0.5 year) an array of 128 proportional wire modules, arranged in two planes (each of two crossed layers) separated by 10 m, and with effective overlap areas of 35 m{sup 2}, was operated as an underground muon detector. The detector is located at a depth of 2100 meters of water equivalent in northern Minnesota (92.2{degree} W. 47.4{degree} N). The response time for the proportional tubes is 1 {mu}s and the overall angular resolution is 2{degree}. Absolute timing information ({approximately}1 ms) was available for most of the 250,000 recorded triggers. A sample of the total data consisting of 103,000 reconstructed, single muon tracks, was used to search for an excess muon flux from the direction of the astronomical point source, Cygnus X-3. The authors reports an integrated excess flux from that direction of (6 {plus minus} 2) {times} 10{sup {minus}11} cm{sup {minus}2}s{sup {minus}1}. The vertical muon flux was also measured and found to be (1.2 {plus minus} 0.3) {times} 10{sup {minus}3} m{sup {minus}2}s{sup {minus}1} sterad{sup {minus}1}.

• Research Organization: Tufts Univ., Medford, MA (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6599582
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640101* -- Astrophysics & Cosmology-- Cosmic Radiation
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
BINARY STARS
CHARGED PARTICLE DETECTION
COSMIC MUONS
COSMIC RADIATION
COSMIC RAY FLUX
COSMIC RAY SOURCES
COSMIC X-RAY SOURCES
DETECTION
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
FERMIONS
FUNCTIONS
IONIZING RADIATIONS
LEPTONS
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
MULTIWIRE PROPORTIONAL CHAMBERS
MUON DETECTION
MUONS
ORIGIN
PROPORTIONAL COUNTERS
RADIATION DETECTION
RADIATION DETECTORS
RADIATION FLUX
RADIATIONS
RESPONSE FUNCTIONS
STARS