Publication detail

Portable muon detectors tested in the British Cave Science Centre

TRČKA, T. MIKLUŠ, V. MATT, R.

Original Title

Portable muon detectors tested in the British Cave Science Centre

Type

journal article in Scopus

Language

English

Original Abstract

Every square metre of the Earth’s surface is bombarded by thousands of muons every minute andthey are able to penetrate many hundreds of metres of rock. This report describes two CosmicWatch muondetectors that have been built for testing in the British Cave Science Centre. Each detector incorporates aslab of plastic scintillator instrumented with a silicon photomultiplier and a printed circuit board, whichamplifies and shapes any signals from the photomultiplier, along with a microcontroller, which measuresthe peak voltage and assigns an event timestamp. Muon counts have been obtained for twenty-four hoursat four monitoring points in different parts of the cave and it can be seen that both the total muon countsand the highest peak voltages correlate strongly with depth below the surface. Although building andtesting these detectors appears to represent a realistic aim for many undergraduate students and enthusiastichobbyists, a number of potential pitfalls are outlined. Finally, it is suggested that muon counts could be usedto approximate depth below the surface in situations where other survey techniques cannot be applied.

Keywords

detector;monitoring

Authors

TRČKA, T.; MIKLUŠ, V.; MATT, R.

Released

1. 12. 2023

ISBN

1356-191X

Periodical

Cave and Karst Science

Year of study

50

Number

3

State

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Pages from

113

Pages to

118

Pages count

6

URL

https://www.scopus.com/record/display.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85189545121&origin=resultslist

BibTex

@article{BUT186957,
  author="Tomáš {Trčka} and Vladimír {Mikluš} and Rowberry {Matt}",
  title="Portable muon detectors tested in the British Cave Science Centre",
  journal="Cave and Karst Science",
  year="2023",
  volume="50",
  number="3",
  pages="113--118",
  issn="1356-191X",
  url="https://www.scopus.com/record/display.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85189545121&origin=resultslist"
}