MUON PHYSICS

“Catching” Cosmic Rays

• Measure Muon Lifetime
• Demonstrate Relativistic Time Dilation
• Measure Local Muon Flux
• Measure Sea Level Muon Charge Ratio
• Convenient Source of Genuinely Random Numbers
• Create Simulated "Muons" and Measure their Lifetime
• Study Processing of Photomultiplier Signal

Instruments Designed For Teaching

 The 1937 discovery of the muon by Carl Anderson
marked a radical departure in physicists’ understand-
ing of the building blocks of matter. Although it was
first assigned a place in the theory of nuclear forces
which was incorrect, the muon is now understood to
be an important member of the lepton family of fun-
damental particles.
In collaboration with Thomas Coan and Jingbo Ye
of Southern Methodist University, TeachSpin has built
the first commercial teaching instrument for students
to determine some of the muon’s physical characteris-
tics. It can be used anywhere from an advanced labo-
ratory where students will want to create their own
algorithms for determining muon lifetime and explore
the workings of the photomultiplier, to a high school
science class participating in a national or internation-
al comparative muon flux project.
Muons are produced copiously in Earth’s upper
atmosphere by interactions between cosmic rays and
atmospheric air molecules. Their flux at sea level is Figure 1
sufficient for student investigations. The muon’s
lifetime can be measured with our apparatus using
LED. The scintillator, a right circular cylinder, is opti-
experimental techniques common to both nuclear and
cally coupled to a single 5 cm diameter 10-stage PMT.
particle physics. The stopping rate of muons in our
Because all of the circuitry for the PMT is mounted
detector, as a function of depth in the atmosphere, can
inside the aluminum cylinder, there are no exposed
be used as a demonstration of the time dilation effect
HV electrodes. The HV is manually varied and mon-
of special relativity. Also, since the decay times of
itored by external controls. The scintillator is suffi-
individual radioactive particles are randomly distrib-
ciently thick that muon passage through, or decay
uted, they are a convenient source of genuinely ran-
inside, produces ample light to be detected by the
dom numbers. These can be used to demonstrate
PMT. The embedded LED can be driven by the
common probability distributions.
adjustable pulser to mimic muon decays and to test the
readout and storage electronics.
THE INSTRUMENT
Electronics Module
Three "modules" comprise the Muon Physics
The electronics module houses all electronics need-
hardware: the detector, the electronics, and a user
ed to run the experiment. PMT pulses are first ampli-
supplied computer. Figure 1 shows the block
fied and compared against an adjustable threshold.
diagram. Data processing software, written
Pulses above threshold are sent to timing circuitry
by Coan and Ye, runs on both Microsoft Windows
implemented in a field programmable gate array
and Linux. Updates will be available via the web.
(FPGA) chip. (See Figure 2.) The first flash of the
The program requires 100 Mbytes of
scintillator starts the timing system. If a second flash
disk space (mostly for data storage) and 32 Mbytes
occurs within 20 microseconds of the first, the readout
of memory. The PC processor should be
electronics measures the time between the two flashes
equivalent to an Intel 133 MHz or better.
and passes that time to the lifetime display software.
Detector Module: If a second flash does not occur within 20
A black anodized aluminum cylinder houses the microseconds, the pulse is simply recorded as a
entire detector module including the plastic scintilla- charged particle that has passed through the detector.
tor, photomultiplier tube (PMT), and high voltage Communication circuitry transfers the data to a PC or
supply (HV) as well as electronics for an embedded laptop through either a serial or USB port.
 STUDENT EXPERIMENTS
Mean Muon Lifetime
The form of the decay time distribution for muons
stopped in the scintillator is characteristic of the decay
of radioactive substances with some background
counts. This is mathematically expressed as:
t
N ( t ) = No e τ +B

Additional background counts can be easily

induced by bringing a 1 micro-Curie Cs-137 source
close to the detector. After measuring and plotting the
Figure 2 distribution of times between successive scintillator
flashes, students can fit the exponential-like distribu-
Connections on the front panel allow students both to tion and extract the mean muon lifetime (τ) in mat-
examine the PMT signal itself, and to monitor that ter, using either our curve fitting algorithm or their
signal as it moves along the readout chain. own.

The Software
Data acquisition of muon decay times is computer
controlled to eliminate the tedium of number record-
ing and to permit extended data collection. The decay
time histogram is automatically updated with data
ln Evt/Bin

from the readout electronics. Important display fea-

tures like the histogram’s bin size and the
logarithmic/linear axis type remain under user con-
trol. A password-protected built-in curve fitting algo-
rithm allows for easy determination of the muon life-
time while still maintaining instructor control.
Various rate monitors indicate quantities like the
instantaneous and time averaged trigger rate, the total
number of recorded muon decays and the elapsed
time for data acquisition. Figure 3
Raw data are written to disk files in a compact for-
mat so that students can export them to their own soft-
ware package and not rely on the one provided. The screen capture in Figure 3 was made using the
Simulation software allows the creation of decay time included software and shows a fit to actual student
distributions with a user-adjustable muon lifetime. data. Note that the central value for the muon’s life-
Source code for data acquisition, plotting and simula- time, τ = 2.123 ±0.015 µsec, is less than the free space
tion is written in the Tcl/Tk scripting language and is value, τ = 2.197 ± 0.001 µsec. This correctly indi-
provided free of charge so motivated students can cates the effect of nuclear interactions between pro-
modify the user interface or the built-in lifetime curve tons and negative muons.
fitting algorithm Software is distributed on a CD and Once the muon lifetime is measured, a value of the
runs under Microsoft and Linux operating systems. Fermi coupling constant GF, characterizing the
Free updates are available via the World Wide Web. strength of the weak interactions, is easily determined.
GF is calculated from: Predictions of Probability Theory
192 π 3 The decay times of individual muons are an excellent
GF2 m µ 5 source of genuinely random numbers. Once the expo-
nential form of the probability distribution for these
Accounting only for statistical error, the student data times is measured, students can make predictions about
shown yields GF = (1.18 ± 0.01) x 10-5 GeV-2, which the outcomes of corresponding binomial experiments.
is consistent with more precise measurements. Taking a new data set then allows a direct comparison
between actual data and the predictions of probability
Sea-level Charge Ratio theory.
With this instrument, the muon lifetime measured in
matter (i.e., plastic scintillator) is an average over nega- Explore Processing of Photomultiplier Signal
tively and positively charged muons. Negatively Test points are provided along the entire electronic
charged muons have nuclear interactions that slightly signal chain so that students can examine the wave-
lessen their mean lifetime in matter. Therefore, using forms of the photomultiplier signal, either real or simu-
the lifetime of negative muons in carbon taken from the lated, at various stages of processing. The photomulti-
literature (τ = 2.043 ± 0.003 µsec), the sea-level charge plier high voltage, the amplifier gain, the threshold set-
ratio of positive to negative muons at low energy, ting and the FPGA timing characteristics are easily
Eµ ~ = 200 MeV, can be easily determined. The student measured with an oscilloscope or voltmeter.
data included in this brochure yields a sea-level charge
ratio f+/ f- = 1.08 ± 0.01 (32.5° latitude), which is
consistent with published values.
SPECIFICATIONS
Time Dilation Effect of Special Relativity
Once the muon lifetime is measured, the stopping Detector Size: Diam. 16.5 cm Height 35.5 cm
rate as a function of elevation above sea level can be
PMT: 10-stage bialkali photocathode Diam. 5.1 cm
used to distinguish between the predictions of classical
mechanics and special relativity, providing confirma- Timing FPGA: Bin Size (resolution) 20 ns
tion of the time dilation effect of special relativity. Dynamic Range 20 µsec
Although the instrument is not optimized for this meas- Timing clock frequency: 50 MHz ± 5 kHz
urement, the simplicity of the measurement is appealing Power Consumption (excluding PC): 25 watts
since it requires no lead shielding. For example, after
Typical detected muon decay rate: 1 event/minute
measuring the muon stopping rate to a statistical preci-
sion of 2% at two locations vertically separated by 1985 Operating systems: Microsoft Windows™ 95, 98,
meters, the ratio of these stopping rates (0.55 ± 0.02) ME, 2000, XP and Linux
agrees well with a straightforward calculation (0.56 ± Supported I/O port protocols: Serial and USB
0.06) that accounts for time dilation, muon energy loss Free Software Upgrades
in the atmosphere, and the differential muon momentum
Detector and Electronic Modules available separately
spectrum at sea level.
Recommended minimum PC performance
Cosmic Ray Background Radiation Processor: Intel 133 MHz
Included rate monitors measure both the stopping rate Disk Space: 100 Mbytes
of muons and the combined total charged particle flux Memory: 32 Mbytes
(which includes both muons and electrons) that pass Electronics Case: 11x7x3 inches
through the scintillator. This data can be used to moni-
tor variations in cosmic radiation at the geographic
location of the observer.

TEACHSPIN, INC.
Tri-Main Center, Suite 409
2495 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14214-2153
Phone 716-885-4701
www.teachspin.com