Experimental Studies of the Acoustic Signature of Proton Beams Traversing Fluid Media

Abstract

The work reported here establishes that a detectable sonic signal is produced by protons while traversing through or stopping in a fluid medium. Experiments exploring the global characteristics of both the acoustic generation mechanism and the radiation pattern have been performed at three different accelerators. The results are consistent with a simple thermal model for the transformation of the energy of moving charged particles into acoustic energy. This novel phenomenon could be exploited in several forseeable applications: (1) as a charged particle monitor in accelerator beams, (2) as a heavy ion detector sensitive to nuclear charge (signal infinity Z/sup 2/), e.g. in measuring the cosmic ray isotope abundances, (3) as an inexpensive shower detector in massive (approx. 10/sup 4/ Ton) neutrino detectors at the next generation of high energy accelerators, e.g. the Fermilab energy doubler and (4) as the shower calorimeter (and perhaps the muon detector) in massive (greater than or equal to 10/sup 9/ Ton) deep underwater detectors of cosmic neutrino and muon interactions.