A.D.O.M Airborne.Detector.of.Muons Tye Barba Anna Chang Natalina DeFusco David Hood.

A.D.O.MA.D.O.MAirborne.Detector.of.Muons

Tye BarbaAnna Chang

Natalina DeFuscoDavid Hood

Background InfoBackground Info

• A muon is an elementary particle that is a very heavy electron

• Lifetime of 2.2 microseconds, makes up more then half of cosmic radiation

• Created when cosmic rays (mostly protons) from deep space hit the earth’s atmosphere at about 15,000m

Experiment DescriptionExperiment Description

• Two Photomultiplier tubes (PMT), a scintillator panel and a QNET board are sent up to 1000 ft to detect a change in the rate of muons

• Hypothesis- more muons will be detected at a higher altitude

Description of equipmentDescription of equipmentScintillator panel PMT QNET board (a)X-BEE Transmitter (b)Power Supply (c)

(a)

(b)(b)

(c)

ProcedureProcedure

• A gondola was constructed and attached to a weather balloon and lifted to 1000 ft.

• Data was taken for 30 min.

• A XBEE transmitter transmits the data to a receiver on the ground.

• The counts are graphed and analyzed

TheThe DataData

• At ground level the rate was 2.6 counts per minute

• At 766ft the rate was 94.1 counts per minute

• We did have a very large discrepancy between the rates from the ground and at 766ft

• About 36 times more muons at 766ft than at ground level

Sample DataSample DataE966E0C7 BB 01 00 01 00 01 00 01 00000000 0 0 0 0 8 +0000E966E0C8 01 30 00 01 00 01 00 01 00000000 0 0 0 0 8 +0000B5912928 B7 01 00 01 00 01 00 01 00000000 0 0 0 0 8 +0000B5912929 01 23 00 01 00 01 00 01 00000000 0 0 0 0 8 +0000E53FE6DC A9 2C 00 01 00 01 00 01 00000000 0 0 0 0 8 +000066F9087C B2 3D 00 01 00 01 00 01 00000000 0 0 0 0 8 +0000A54678A5 A6 29 00 01 00 01 00 01 00000000 0 0 0 0 8 +000061B26F7C B2 35 00 01 00 01 00 01 00000000 0 0 0 0 8 +000013FA3F9F AB 37 00 01 00 01 00 01 00000000 0 0 0 0 8 +000099063824 A4 29 00 01 00 01 00 01 00000000 0 0 0 0 8 +0000E4435891 AC 35 00 01 00 01 00 01 00000000 0 0 0 0 8 +0000021CEF6D BE 01 00 01 00 01 00 01 00000000 0 0 0 0 8 +0000

][|\| |-|3X/-\|)3(][/\/\/-\|_!!!(hexadecimal)

ConclusionConclusion

• We checked the PMT and threshold voltages

• For this test, the data is valid• If repeated, the data would probably

change• To improve, we would take more sets of

data to reduce the error and take an average