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Study of cosmic ray events with high muon multiplicity using the ALICE detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider

J., Adam ; Christiansen, P. LU ; Ljunggren, H. ; Oskarsson, A. LU ; Richert, T. LU ; Silvermyr, D. LU orcid ; Søgaard, C. LU ; Stenlund, E. LU ; Vislavicius, V. LU and M., Zyzak (2016) In Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics 2016(1).
Abstract
ALICE is one of four large experiments at the CERN Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, specially designed to study particle production in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Located 52 meters underground with 28 meters of overburden rock, it has also been used to detect muons produced by cosmic ray interactions in the upper atmosphere. In this paper, we present the multiplicity distribution of these atmospheric muons and its comparison with Monte Carlo simulations. This analysis exploits the large size and excellent tracking capability of the ALICE Time Projection Chamber. A special emphasis is given to the study of high multiplicity events containing more than 100 reconstructed muons and corresponding to a muon areal density ρμ >... (More)
ALICE is one of four large experiments at the CERN Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, specially designed to study particle production in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Located 52 meters underground with 28 meters of overburden rock, it has also been used to detect muons produced by cosmic ray interactions in the upper atmosphere. In this paper, we present the multiplicity distribution of these atmospheric muons and its comparison with Monte Carlo simulations. This analysis exploits the large size and excellent tracking capability of the ALICE Time Projection Chamber. A special emphasis is given to the study of high multiplicity events containing more than 100 reconstructed muons and corresponding to a muon areal density ρμ > 5.9 m-2. Similar events have been studied in previous underground experiments such as ALEPH and DELPHI at LEP. While these experiments were able to reproduce the measured muon multiplicity distribution with Monte Carlo simulations at low and intermediate multiplicities, their simulations failed to describe the frequency of the highest multiplicity events. In this work we show that the high multiplicity events observed in ALICE stem from primary cosmic rays with energies above 1016 eV and that the frequency of these events can be successfully described by assuming a heavy mass composition of primary cosmic rays in this energy range. The development of the resulting air showers was simulated using the latest version of QGSJET to model hadronic interactions. This observation places significant constraints on alternative, more exotic, production mechanisms for these events. © 2016 CERN for the benefit of the ALICE Collaboration. (Less)
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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
cosmic ray experiments, cosmic rays detectors
in
Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
volume
2016
issue
1
article number
032
publisher
IOP Publishing
external identifiers
  • scopus:84958184309
ISSN
1475-7516
DOI
10.1088/1475-7516/2016/01/032
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
7eb3da09-818c-4f94-9d3a-1649d109dcf8
date added to LUP
2022-04-01 09:32:10
date last changed
2023-04-07 16:04:51
@article{7eb3da09-818c-4f94-9d3a-1649d109dcf8,
  abstract     = {{ALICE is one of four large experiments at the CERN Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, specially designed to study particle production in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Located 52 meters underground with 28 meters of overburden rock, it has also been used to detect muons produced by cosmic ray interactions in the upper atmosphere. In this paper, we present the multiplicity distribution of these atmospheric muons and its comparison with Monte Carlo simulations. This analysis exploits the large size and excellent tracking capability of the ALICE Time Projection Chamber. A special emphasis is given to the study of high multiplicity events containing more than 100 reconstructed muons and corresponding to a muon areal density ρμ > 5.9 m-2. Similar events have been studied in previous underground experiments such as ALEPH and DELPHI at LEP. While these experiments were able to reproduce the measured muon multiplicity distribution with Monte Carlo simulations at low and intermediate multiplicities, their simulations failed to describe the frequency of the highest multiplicity events. In this work we show that the high multiplicity events observed in ALICE stem from primary cosmic rays with energies above 1016 eV and that the frequency of these events can be successfully described by assuming a heavy mass composition of primary cosmic rays in this energy range. The development of the resulting air showers was simulated using the latest version of QGSJET to model hadronic interactions. This observation places significant constraints on alternative, more exotic, production mechanisms for these events. © 2016 CERN for the benefit of the ALICE Collaboration.}},
  author       = {{J., Adam and Christiansen, P. and Ljunggren, H. and Oskarsson, A. and Richert, T. and Silvermyr, D. and Søgaard, C. and Stenlund, E. and Vislavicius, V. and M., Zyzak}},
  issn         = {{1475-7516}},
  keywords     = {{cosmic ray experiments; cosmic rays detectors}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  publisher    = {{IOP Publishing}},
  series       = {{Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics}},
  title        = {{Study of cosmic ray events with high muon multiplicity using the ALICE detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2016/01/032}},
  doi          = {{10.1088/1475-7516/2016/01/032}},
  volume       = {{2016}},
  year         = {{2016}},
}