Abstract
A new concept for the direct measurement of muons in air showers is presented. The concept is based on resistive plate chambers (RPCs), which can directly measure muons with very good space and time resolution. The muon detector is shielded by placing it under another detector able to absorb and measure the electromagnetic component of the showers such as a water-Cherenkov detector, commonly used in air shower arrays. The combination of the two detectors in a single, compact detector unit provides a unique measurement that opens rich possibilities in the study of air showers.
Highlights
At the highest energies, cosmic rays are scarce and measured indirectly through the detection of extensive air showers (EAS)
We introduce MARTA, an innovative concept combining high-accuracy muon measurements provided by resistive plate chambers (RPCs) with the calorimetric measurement of standard air shower detectors
MARTA (Muon Array with RPCs for Tagging Air showers) is a hybrid detector concept that combines the information from RPCs with data from another detector able to perform a calorimetric measurement of air showers
Summary
Cosmic rays are scarce and measured indirectly through the detection of extensive air showers (EAS). The discrepancy between models and data can only be elucidated by extending this type of event-by-event analysis to include observables with complementary sensitivity to hadronic physics and composition, such as muonic variables, and by improving the ability of detectors to separately measure the muon and electromagnetic components from the signal recorded at ground. A direct and accurate measurement of the muon component with 100% duty cycle would allow us to have composition sensitivity on a shower-by-shower basis, to study hadronic interactions at the highest energies, to improve the sensitivity to photon primaries and to better understand and reduce the systematic uncertainties of many different measurements. We introduce MARTA, an innovative concept combining high-accuracy muon measurements provided by resistive plate chambers (RPCs) with the calorimetric measurement of standard air shower detectors.
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