Portable muon detectors tested in the British Cave Science Centre

0583511 - ÚSMH 2024 RIV GB eng J - Journal Article
Rowberry, Matthew David - Trčka, T. - Mikluš, V.
Portable muon detectors tested in the British Cave Science Centre.
Cave and Karst Science. Roč. 50, č. 3 (2023), s. 113-118. ISSN 1356-191X
Institutional support: RVO:67985891
Keywords : atmospheric science * meteorology * field monitoring * time series analysis * muon detection
OECD category: Meteorology and atmospheric sciences
Method of publishing: Limited access
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/376952712_Portable_muon_detectors_tested_in_the_British_Cave_Science_Centre

Every square metre of the Earth's surface is bombarded by thousands of muons every minute and they are able to penetrate many hundreds of metres of rock. This report describes two CosmicWatch muon detectors that have been built for testing in the British Cave Science Centre. Each detector incorporates a slab of plastic scintillator instrumented with a silicon photomultiplier and a printed circuit board, which amplifies and shapes any signals from the photomultiplier, along with a microcontroller, which measures the peak voltage and assigns an event timestamp. Muon counts have been obtained for twenty four hours at four monitoring points in different parts of the cave and it can be seen that both the total muon counts and the highest peak voltages correlate strongly with depth below the surface. Although building and testing these detectors appears to represent a realistic aim for many undergraduate students and enthusiastic hobbyists, a number of potential pitfalls are outlined. Finally, it is suggested that muon counts could be used to approximate depth below the surface in situations where other survey techniques cannot be applied.
Permanent Link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0351485