Fluxes of atomospheric muons with the HEAT-pbar instrument: A novel timing charge detector for the CREAM instrument.

摘要

A measurement of the charge ratio (μ+/μ− ) and absolute μ− fluxes of atmospheric unions in the momentum range 0.3–50.0 GeV/c is made with the High Energy Antimatter Telescope (HEAT-pbar) instrument. The instrument was flown on a high altitude balloon on June 3, 2000 from Fort Sumner, NM at an average geomagnetic cutoff of 4.5 GV. The HEAT-pbar instrument employs a superconducting magnet spectrometer, a time-of-flight detector, and stacks of multiwire proportional chambers to measure incident particle charge, momentum, and energy loss through the instrument. The measurements presented in this thesis are consistent with previous HEAT flights and other instruments' results, as well as with various theoretical calculations of atmospheric muon fluxes/ratios.; Also presented in this thesis are the science behind and the current construction status of the Cosmic Ray Energetics and Mass (CREAM) balloon experiment. CREAM is currently scheduled to fly in December 2004 from Antarctica and will measure the individual cosmic ray nuclei energy spectra from 1–1000 TeV for particles of charge 1 ≤ Z ≤ 26 (protons to iron). This work specifically concentrates on a Timing Charge Detector being built by the Pennsylvania State University CREAM Group.