Effect of copper and aluminium on the event rate of cosmic ray muons at ground level in Bangi, Malaysia

Abstract

In this study we determine the effect of aluminium (Al) and copper (Cu) shielding on the event rate of cosmic ray muons at ground level. The experiment was performed at Bangi in Malaysia with coordinates of 101.78° E, 2.92° N and elevation 30 m above sea level. Measurements were made along the vertical direction using muon telescopes (MTs) of parallel Geiger-Muller (GM) tubes with metal sheets above the MTs of up to 2.4 cm for Al and 2.7 cm for Cu. For these ranges of metal thicknesses, we find that the muon count rates increase linearly with the increase in metal thicknesses. The observed increase rate values are (0.18 ± 0.10) cm-1 and (0.26 ± 0.10)cm-1 for Al and Cu, respectively, with the larger value for Cu as expected from its higher atomic number and density. This indicates that for this thickness range, only the lower region of the Rossi curve is observed, with incoming cosmic ray muons producing charged particles in the metal layers, resulting in shower events or electromagnetic cascade. Thus, for this range of layer thickness, both aluminium and copper are not suitable to be used as shielding materials for ground level cosmic ray muons.