Atmospheric Muons: An Overview

Sayan Das
IISER Kolkata (1st Year- 17MS147)
Supervisor- Prof. Nayana Majumdar
Contents
 What is MUONs?
 Origin of MUONs: Understanding cosmic radiation and Muon production
 Basic properties of MUONs: Mass, Lifetime and Size
 The 2 MUON sources
 Fundamental interactions of MUONS: Electromagnetic and Weak
 Energy and Angular Distribution of MUONs
 Atmospheric MUON flux measurements: Muon Intensity, Momentum
Spectra and Charge Ratio
 Polarization of MUONs
 What are Muons?

 Muons are unstable elementary particles of two charge types

(positive µ+ and negative µ−) having a spin of 1/2, an unusual
mass intermediate between the proton mass and the
electron mass (1/9 mp, 207 me), and 2.2 µs lifetime.
Here, mp -> Mass of proton
me -> Mass of electron
µs -> Micro seconds
Origin of Muons
• Cosmic Radiation
This specifically refers to the cosmic microwave background radiation. This
consists of very, very low energy photons (energy of about 2.78 Kelvin) whose
spectrum is peaked in the microwave region and which are remnants from the
time when the universe was only about 200,000 years old. There are also very
old remnant neutrinos in the cosmic radiation. Neutrinos pass through just
about everything with no effect so they are harmless. The photons are too low
in energy to be dangerous.

• Cosmic Rays
Cosmic rays are high-energy radiation, mainly originating outside the Solar
System and even from distant galaxies. Composed primarily of high-energy
protons and atomic nuclei, they are of uncertain origin. Data from the Fermi
Space Telescope (2013) have been interpreted as evidence that a significant
fraction of primary cosmic rays originates from the supernova explosions of
stars. Active galactic nuclei are also theorized to produce cosmic rays. Even
the Big Bang is theorized to be a source.
Upon impact with the Earth's
atmosphere, cosmic rays can
produce showers of secondary
particles that sometimes reach
the surface.

It is this interaction of the

primary cosmic ray particles in
the Earth’s atmosphere that
leads to the production of a
cascade of secondary
particles or Extensive Air
Showers (EAS) with various
components - hadronic,
muonic and electromagnetic
components. There are various
prevailing theories that explain
this phenomenon.
• Production of Muons
Most muons observed at the surface of the Earth are produced by primary
cosmic rays in the upper atmosphere. They are the most numerous energetic
particles arriving at sea level, with a flux of about 1 muon per square
centimetre per minute.

The interaction of the primary cosmic ray particles leads to the production of
secondary cosmic ray particles or secondary cosmic radiation. For example,
a primary proton can interact with a nucleus in the Earth’s atmosphere to
produce pions,

p + nucleus → π+ + π− + π0 + anything

which in turn decay to produce muons, neutrinos and photons,

π+ → µ+ + νµ
π− → µ− + νµ’
π0 → γ + γ

Here π+ & π- are pions with + and – charges.

µ represents muons, p represents protons, γ represents photons
νµ are muonic neutrinos and νµ’ are muonic antineutrinos.
Similar processes occur in the decay of kaons producing muons with high
momenta. These cosmic ray muons decay into electrons and neutrinos,

µ+ → e+ + νe + νµ’
µ− → e− + νe’ + νµ

Such cosmic ray muons follow closely the direction of the incident protons and
constitute the bulk of the down-going cosmic ray muons.

In some cases, energetic primary neutrinos can interact with the (primary)
protons or neutrons to produce the so-called neutrino-induced cosmic ray
muons,
νµ + n → µ− + p
νµ’ + p → µ+ + n

The neutrino-induced cosmic ray muons are usually observed as up-going

cosmic ray muons through the Earth. There are experiments, for example
AMANDA1, which measure the up-going muons.

Here µ+ and µ- stands for muons with +/- charge.

ve and ve’ stands for electron neutrinos and antineutrinos.
νµ are muonic neutrinos and νµ’ are muonic antineutrinos
p and n stands for protons and neutrons.
The analytical form of the muon production spectrum at a given height in the
atmosphere can be derived by folding the two-body decay kinematics of the parent
mesons with their production spectrum. The latter is generally expressed in terms of the
so called “spectrum weighted” moments:

where (dNpπ±)/dx is the pion production spectrum (x = Eπ/Ep and γ is the differential
primary spectral index). A similar expression can be obtained for kaons.

We can distinguish three different energy regions in the muon spectrum:

a) Eµ >> ε(π,K), where επ = 115 GeV and εK = 850 GeV are the critical energy beyond
which meson reinteractions cannot be neglected. This is the typical muon energy
range studied by underground detectors or by ground based experiments looking at
high inclined directions. In this case, the meson production spectrum have the same
power law dependence of the primary cosmic rays, but the rate of their decay has
an extra E-1 dependence with respect to the primary and meson spectrum (a
consequence of the Lorentz time dilatation). The muon (and hence neutrino) flux
takes the form: dN/dEµ = E-(γ+1) µ , and a zenith dependence dN/dcosθ ∝ (cosθ)−1.
b) ε(µ) < ∼ Eµ < ∼ ε(π,K), where εµ = 1 GeV. In this energy range, almost all the mesons
decay, and the muon flux has a power law dependence with the same spectral index
of the parent mesons (and hence of the primary cosmic ray, in the assumption of
complete Feynman scaling validity) and is almost independent on the zenith angle. A
compact form which expresses the low and high energy regions is :

c) Eµ < ∼ ε(µ) . In this case, muon decays and the energy losses in the atmosphere
cannot be neglected. Moreover, geomagnetic latitude and solar modulation now
play an important role being the primary cosmic ray energy Ep < 20 GeV.
Basic Properties of Muons
• Mass
Muons have an unusual mass intermediate between the proton mass and the electron mass (1/9 mp, 207 me); this result is
achieved with comparison to the electron mass, which is known to be precise to 10 p.p.b [10^(-8)].

• Lifetime of the muon

The µ+ and µ− in vacuum have the following major (100%) decay modes:
µ+ → e+ + Vµ’ + Ve
µ− → e− + Vµ + Ve’
where Ve and Vµ are the electron and muon neutrinos and Ve’ and Vµ’ the corresponding antineutrinos
The positive muon lifetime, τµ, can be measured from the shape of the time spectrum of the decay positrons with
reference to the time of µ+ stopping in some target material under the reasonable assumption that the decay mode
of µ+ in matter is not subject to any changes from that in vacuum. The time distribution of decay positrons Ne(t)
follows an exponential law:

Ne(t)= Ne(0) * e^(−t/τµ)

The life time of µ− must be measured in vacuum since that of bound µ− in the 1s orbit of a muonic atom is significantly
shortened by nuclear capture processes. An alternative method is to measure the lifetime of µ− in flight compared to that
of µ+.
Size

The size of the µ+ and µ− can be measured in high-energy collision experiments using e+ - e− colliders; the reaction
e++e− → µ++µ−, assuming quantum electrodynamics (QED) and with point-like e+ and e−, confirms that µ+ and µ−, too,
are point-like, with rµ ≤ 10−16cm (Martyn, 1990).

The size of µ+ and µ− can also be estimated from high-precision measurements of muon properties such as the
anomalous gyromagnetic ratio of muon, (g−2)µ, or from the upper limit upon flavour non conserving decays such as
µ+ → e+ + γ. These measurements also place a stringent upper limit on the existence of possible internal structure or
excited states in the muon. These limits, with the aid of theoretical models, can be converted to give an upper limit on
the size of the muon: rµ ≤10−17 cm (Brodsky and Drell, 1980).

In this framework, the properties of the muon can be summarized as follows:

The muon belongs to the lepton family, along with the electron, the τ- particle, and their corresponding
neutrinos (νe, νµ, and ντ).The muon interacts with other particles and matter through both
electromagnetic and weak interactions.
Types of Muons
So far, two types of muon beams are available, namely, accelerator-producing muons and
cosmic-ray muons. Accelerator-producing muons are high-intensity and low-energy with a
short stopping range, while cosmic-ray muons are low-intensity and high-energy with a very
long stopping range.

A variety of interesting scientific research has been initiated focusing on these two types of muon
beams.

The accelerator-producing muons, after stopping in mm–cm-thick target material, are used to
conduct condensed-matter studies by the muon spin rotation/relaxation/resonance method, muon
catalyzed fusion studies, and nondestructive elemental analysis studies for, e.g., biomedical
applications. As a result of development of the ultraslow positive muon technique, sub-µm-thick
material can now be an objective of µSR studies.

On the other hand, the cosmic-ray muon is now known to be used to measure the density and
length of gigantic geophysical substances such as a volcano to learn its inner structure.

There is a clear difference between scientific research with accelerator-producing muons and that
with cosmic-ray muons; the former mostly concerns experimental studies after stopping the muons
inside the objective substance, while the latter is about experimental studies by penetration or
scattering.
Fundamental Interactions of the Muon
The µ+ and µ−are subject to electromagnetic and weak interactions. These two interactions are now unified into an
electroweak interaction within the framework of the standard model. Understanding these is important as on one
hand the measurement of muon interactions represents a test of quantum electrodynamics and on the other hand the
high energies available in cosmic rays would possibly lead to the measurement of new processes or the detection of
new particles.
Electromagnetic Interactions
Both charge types of the muon interact with other charged particles via the Coulomb interaction in which the potential
energy is given by –(e^2)*Z/r, where Z is the charge of the other particle (the charge on the muon being ±1). Several
important atomic bound states are formed, including: muonium (µ+e−), muonic hydrogen (µ−p), and muonic Z-atoms
(µ−Z).
The magnetic moments of µ+ and µ− (µµ) interact with magnetic fields either intrinsic to the atoms themselves or
externally applied. The hyperfine splittings in the atomic bound states and the spin precession frequencies around the
external field(Hext) are thus determined by the relevant parameters:
ΔEhfs( Mu,1s )= µµ ×µe <1/r3>, fµ = γ Mu (= µµ/2π) Hext

Tests of the validity of the fundamental theory of QED have been carried out through high precision spectroscopy
making use of µ+ and µ− -containing atoms. These experiments also yield values for the fundamental constants of the
muon itself, such as the mass of the muon mµ and the magnetic moment of the muon µµ.
Weak Interactions
The weak interaction of the muon is the phenomenon underlying both the decay of µ+ and µ− and the nuclear
capture of µ− in muonic atoms 1s. The fundamental law of flavor conservation has been confirmed through
observations setting an upper limit on flavor conservation-violating processes such as µ+ →e+ + γ or µ− +Z →e− +Z.

In addition to lepton number conservation, another important weak-interaction experiment involving muon, muonium
and muonic atom is to search for a conversion of muonium (Mu, µ+e−) to antimuonium (Mu, µ-e+). This is related to the
mixing of lepton numbers, including multiplicative or additive schemes; the standard model in particle physics
assumes an additive scheme.

At the same time, the detailed properties of the normal decay process of the µ+ yielding an e+ and two neutrinos have
been studied to a high degree of precision.
Energy and angular distribution of atmospheric muons
Muons are produced at about 10-15 km height in the atmosphere and lose about 2 GeV of energy before reaching the
ground. Their energy and angular distribution at ground reflect a convolution of production spectrum, energy loss in the
atmosphere and the decay. The energy spectrum of muons is almost flat below 1 GeV and then steepens to reflect the
primary energy spectrum in the10-100 GeV range. It steepens further above 100 GeV since the pions above this energy
would interact in the atmosphere before decaying to muons. Above 1 TeV, the energy spectrum of the muons is one power
steeper than the primary spectrum. The energy distribution of primary cosmic rays follow power law E−n. The pion and
the muon distributions also follow the same power law which is modified in the low energy region. The vertical flux as a
function of energy can be described by :

(n−1)
where I0 is the vertical (θ = 0) muon flux integrated over energy, which gives the normalization N = (n−1)E0 . Here, we
have added a parameter E0 which accounts for energy loss due to both the hadronic as well as electromagnetic
interactions with air molecules. We can introduce one more parameter ϵ which modifies the power in the high energy part
and that should account for the finite life time of pions and kaons,
Both the Eqs. 1 and 2 assume that the energy loss (E0) is independent of particle energy, an assumption which is good for
minimum ionizing particles. At low energies, the energy loss varies as 1/E thus a more appropriate distribution would come
with an additional parameter E1 as

Here, the normalization constant N can be obtained numerically.

The muon flux measured on the Earth’s surface has a weak dependence on the azimuthal angle but depends strongly
on Zenith angle which is defined as the angle made by the incident ray with the vertical direction at that point.

The zenith angle (θ) dependence of the cosmic muon intensity at sea level has been investigated for different zenith angle
ranges as well. For θ ≤75◦, it is given by the expression

where I(0◦) is the intensity at 0◦ and n is a function of the muon momentum. The value of n around 1GeV is 1.85±0.10

The ratio of the energy loss from inclined to the vertical direction is given by the ratio of the pathlengths (same as the ratio
of thicknesses) D(θ) in the respective directions and thus, the zenith angle distribution of energy integrated flux in terms
of I0 = Φ(θ = 0) is obtained as
Where the ratio of pathlengths of a muon from inclined direction to that of a muon from the vertical
direction is obtained as

The pathlength S can be obtained from sine rule.

Geometrical relation between the vertical pathlength d and

the pathlength inclined at a zenith angle θ.
Atmospheric muon flux measurements
Considering mainly ground-based measurements and those made with detectors on
balloons near the ground level or very close to it, the relevant quantities that can be
directly measured and will be discussed here, are:

• Absolute Muon Intensity

• Muon Momentum Spectra
• Charge Ratio
Absolute intensity measurements
Muons do not interact strongly with the atmospheric nuclei and experience relativistic time dilation in the Earth’s reference frame. As a
result, many of the muons are able to reach the Earth’s surface and they are the most abundant charged particle at sea level, where the
integral intensity of vertical muons above 1GeV/c is around 70m−2 s−1 sr−1
The vertical muon intensity at sea level is a quantity which varies with the geomagnetic latitude, altitude, solar activity and atmospheric
conditions. The geomagnetic field tends to prevent low energy cosmic rays from penetrating through the magnetosphere down to the
Earth’s atmosphere. At any point on the Earth one can define a threshold or cut-off rigidity, Pc, for cosmic rays arriving at a particular zenith
and azimuth angle. Primary nuclei having lower rigidity are excluded by the action of the geomagnetic field and do not contribute to
production of secondaries in the atmosphere. The cut-off values range from less than 1 GeV near the geomagnetic poles to about 16 GeV
for vertical particles near the equator. It results that geomagnetic effects are important for sea level muons up to about∼5 GeV. The effect
is larger at higher altitudes; Conversi found that the vertical flux of muons with momentum around 0.33 GeV/c at latitude 60 deg was 1.8
times higher with respect to the flux at the equator.
Moreover, as cosmic ray primaries are predominantly positively charged particles, the flux and spectra in the East and West directions differ
up to energies of about 100 GeV; the intensity from the West is stronger than that from the East. This effect increases with altitude. In
addition, the primary cosmic ray spectrum at the top of the atmosphere changes with the 11 year solar cycle as the configuration of the
Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF) varies. It results that the cosmic ray flux is significantly “modulated” up to energies of about 20 GeV
In order to estimate how these changes in the primary spectrum influence the counting rate of a muon detector it is necessary to know the
”differential response curve”. Its shape varies significantly with the depth of observations. Their detailed calculations depend on the
properties of nuclear cascades in the atmosphere; more precise descriptions can be found at the standard momentum of 1 GeV/c and at
high latitudes the modulation is 7% and 4.5% for the differential and the integral fluxes, respectively.
Changes in pressure and, particularly, temperature above the instrument up to the point of muon production by pions and kaons, produce
variations of different amplitude in different energy range.
Momentum spectra
These spectra have been measured many times for moments up to ∼ 100 TeV/c. Magnetic spectrometers are mainly used
at low and intermediate energies, while observations at high energies are made close to the horizontal directions at ground
level or deep underground. The latter are indirect measurements, since the ground level spectra have to be extracted from
underground data.
The vertical muon intensity, for a given direction θ,φ and a corresponding rock slant depth h can be expressed as:

where ∆T is the total lifetime of the experiment, Ni is the number of detected events with multiplicity mi in the angular bin
∆Ωj, Aj and Σj are, respectively, the geometrical and intrinsic acceptance of the detector. The relation between the
measured IV µ (h) and the sea-level muon spectrum can be expressed as:

where P(E,h) is the muon survival probability function determined via Monte Carlo.
Charge ratio
In the primary cosmic rays there is an excess of positively charged particles (protons) with respect to the total number of
nucleons. This excess is transmitted via nuclear interactions to pions and further to muons. By assuming that the primary
composition is constant in the energy range considered, this ratio will remain constant with the exception of high energies,
where the contribution from kaons starts to become sizeable. The muon charge ratio is expected to increase also with zenith
angle as the depth is increasing and likewise the energy of the primaries that produce muons of a given momentum at
ground. This quantity is important to study nucleon-nucleon interactions, composition and kaon contribution. Magnetic
spectrographs are used for determining this ratio.
Polarization of Muons
Most cosmic-ray µ mesons which come to rest in a thin absorber at sea level arise from the decay of π mesons. These µ mesons
arrive with energies in a narrow range, so that they can be produced in the backward decay of relatively high-energy π
mesons or in the forward decay of relatively low-energy π mesons. Since the intensity of π mesons is higher at the lower
energy, most of the µ mesons which stop in the absorber have been produced in the forward decay of their parent π mesons. It
is apparent, therefore, that cosmic-ray µ mesons may be partially polarized, and that their polarization may be indicated by
an asymmetry in the direction distribution of their decay electrons.
The degree of polarization must depend on the relative numbers and properties of the unstable particles which give rise to µ
mesons and on their energy spectra, so that a measurement of the polarization can provide a check on our understanding of
the role of unstable particles in the propagation of cosmic rays in the atmosphere.
This partial polarization may be understood qualitatively in the following way. In the pion rest frame muons are emitted
isotopically and these muons are 100% longitudinally polarized. Positive and negative muons are polarized, respectively,
antiparallel and parallel to their momenta.
The partial longitudinal polarization of muons from pions decaying in flight is given by:

where the prime indicates the laboratory frame and the subscript one a unit vector. Here, ξ is the muon polarization vector in
the muon rest frame, v and e are, respectively, the muon velocity and total energy (in units of its rest energy) in the pion rest
frame, and η is the total pion energy (in units of its rest energy) in the laboratory frame.
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THANKING YOU
• Prof. Nayana Majumdar, Supervisor of Summer Project
• Prof. Supratik Mukhopadhyay, Co-Supervisor