nergy spectra of atmospheric muons measured with the CAPRICE98 balloon experiment

THE CAPRICE98 COLLABORATION (P. HANSEN PERTENECIA A DICHA COLABORACION)

PHYSICAL REVIEW D

AMER PHYSICAL SOC

Lugar: New York; Año: 2003 vol. 67 p. 1 - 15

1550-7998

Themeasurement of the atmospheric muon spectrum is currently of greatinterest because of the study of atmospheric neutrinos and theclaim of neutrino oscillations made in 1998 by the Super-KamiokandeCollaboration. A measurement of the muon flux is an indirectmeasure of the neutrino flux. Therefore, it can be usedto improve the calculation of the atmospheric neutrino flux, whichin turn can be compared with the observed neutrino ratesin underground detectors. This article reports a new measurement ofthe µ+ and µ? spectra at several atmospheric depths inthe momentum ranges 0.3?20 GeV/c and 0.3?40 GeV/c, respectively. The data werecollected by the balloon-borne experiment CAPRICE98 during the ascent ofthe payload on 28 May 1998 from Fort Sumner, N.M. The experiment used the NMSU-WIZARD/CAPRICE 98 balloon-borne magnet spectrometerequipped with a gas ring imaging Cherenkov detector and asilicon-tungsten calorimeter.