Characterization of the varying flux of atmospheric muons measured with the Large Volume Detector for 24 years
Journal
Date Issued
2019
Author(s)
Agafonova,N. Yu.
•
•
Antonioli, P.
•
Ashikhmin, V. V.
•
Bari, G.
•
•
Dobrynina, E. A.
•
Enikeev, R. I.
•
•
Galeotti, P.
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Garbini, M.
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Ghia, P. L.
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Giusti, P.
•
Kemp, E.
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Malgin, A. S.
•
•
Persiani, R.
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Pless, I. A.
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Rubinetti, S.
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Ryazhskaya, O. G.
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Sartorelli, G.
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Shakiryanova, I. R.
•
Selvi, M.
•
Taricco, C.
•
•
Vigorito, C. F.
•
Yakushev, V. F.
•
Zichichi, A.
Abstract
The Large Volume Detector (LVD), hosted in the INFN Laboratori Nazionali del
Gran Sasso, is triggered by atmospheric muons at a rate of $\sim 0.1$~Hz. The
data collected over almost a quarter of century are used to study the muon
intensity underground. The 50-million muon series, the longest ever exploited
by an underground instrument, allows for the accurate long-term monitoring of
the muon intensity underground. This is relevant as a study of the background
in the Gran Sasso Laboratory, which hosts a variety of long-duration,
low-background detectors. We describe the procedure to select muon-like events
as well as the method used to compute the exposure. We report the value of the
average muon flux measured from 1994 to 2017: $\mathrm{I_{\mu}^0 = 3.35 \pm
0.0005^{stat}\pm 0.03^{sys} \cdot 10^{-4} ~m^{-2} s^{-1}}$. We show that the
intensity is modulated around this average value due to temperature variations
in the stratosphere. We quantify such a correlation by using temperature data
from the European Center for Medium-range Weather Forecasts: we find an
effective temperature coefficient $\mathrm{\alpha_{T}} = 0.94\pm0.01^{stat}
\pm0.01^{sys}$, in agreement with other measurements at the same depth. We
scrutinise the spectral content of the time series of the muon intensity by
means of the Lomb-Scargle analysis. This yields the evidence of a 1-year
periodicity, as well as the indication of others, both shorter and longer,
suggesting that the series is not a pure sinusoidal wave. Consequently, and for
the first time, we characterise the observed modulation in terms of amplitude
and position of maximum and minimum on a year-by-year basis.
Volume
100
Issue
6
Issn Identifier
2470-0010
Rights
open.access
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