Sean Theisen

Abstract:

Using MIT’s CosmicWatch Design, I constructed a cosmic ray detector with the intent of detecting the flux of muons through Earth’s atmosphere. These muons are high-energy particles that bombard Earth’s surface and can be detected by using a scintillator and a silicon photomultiplier tube. Muon detection is a difficult process because these particles are able to pass through materials without interaction, but when passing through scintillators they produce a small amount of light when they absorb particles creating photons that can then be absorbed into the photomultiplier tube creating a signal. Using this concept I can place the detector at different altitudes and angles to see how that varies the rate. Adding a second muon detector in conjunction with the first allows for more accurate data as it is able to cancel out a large portion of the noise by running the two detectors in coincidence mode. The data collected was analyzed using statistical methods to determine the muon flux and to compare it with theoretical predictions. The current results and status of this project will be presented.