Study of cosmic ray events with high muon multiplicity using the ALICE detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider

J. Adam; D. Adamova; M.M. Aggarwal; G. Aglieri Rinella; Maria Agnello; N. Agrawal; Z. Ahammed; S. U. Ahn; S. Aiola; D. Aleksandrov; Alessandro D; Rafael A. Molina; A. Alici; A. Alkin; Ian Bearden; Hans Bøggild; Christian Holm Christensen; Kristjan Herlache Gulbrandsen; Jens Jørgen Gaardhøje; Hans Hjersing Dalsgaard; Børge Svane Nielsen; Alexander Colliander Hansen; Ante Bilandzic; Marek Chojnacki; Valentina Zaccolo; You Zhou; Christian Alexander Bourjau

doi:10.1088/1475-7516/2016/01/032

Study of cosmic ray events with high muon multiplicity using the ALICE detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider

J. Adam, D. Adamova, M.M. Aggarwal, G. Aglieri Rinella, Maria Agnello, N. Agrawal, Z. Ahammed, S. U. Ahn, S. Aiola, D. Aleksandrov, Alessandro D , Rafael A. Molina, A. Alici, A. Alkin, Ian Bearden, Hans Bøggild, Christian Holm Christensen, Kristjan Herlache Gulbrandsen, Jens Jørgen Gaardhøje, Hans Hjersing DalsgaardBørge Svane Nielsen, Alexander Colliander Hansen, Ante Bilandzic, Marek Chojnacki, Valentina Zaccolo, You Zhou, Christian Alexander Bourjau

Experimental Particle Physics

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Abstract

ALICE is one of four large experiments at the CERN Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, specially designed to study particle production in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Located 52 meters underground with 28 meters of overburden rock, it has also been used to detect muons produced by cosmic ray interactions in the upper atmosphere. In this paper, we present the multiplicity distribution of these atmospheric muons and its comparison with Monte Carlo simulations. This analysis exploits the large size and excellent tracking capability of the ALICE Time Projection Chamber. A special emphasis is given to the study of high multiplicity events containing more than 100 reconstructed muons and corresponding to a muon areal density ρ_μ > 5.9 m^-2. Similar events have been studied in previous underground experiments such as ALEPH and DELPHI at LEP. While these experiments were able to reproduce the measured muon multiplicity distribution with Monte Carlo simulations at low and intermediate multiplicities, their simulations failed to describe the frequency of the highest multiplicity events. In this work we show that the high multiplicity events observed in ALICE stem from primary cosmic rays with energies above 10¹⁶ eV and that the frequency of these events can be successfully described by assuming a heavy mass composition of primary cosmic rays in this energy range. The development of the resulting air showers was simulated using the latest version of QGSJET to model hadronic interactions. This observation places significant constraints on alternative, more exotic, production mechanisms for these events.

Original language	English
Article number	032
Journal	Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Volume	2016
Issue number	1
ISSN	1475-7516
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2016/01/032
Publication status	Published - 19 Jan 2016

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Adam, J., Adamova, D., Aggarwal, M. M., Aglieri Rinella, G., Agnello, M., Agrawal, N., Ahammed, Z., U. Ahn, S., Aiola, S., Aleksandrov, D., D , A., Molina, R. A., Alici, A., Alkin, A., Bearden, I., Bøggild, H., Christensen, C. H., Gulbrandsen, K. H., Gaardhøje, J. J., ... Bourjau, C. A. (2016). Study of cosmic ray events with high muon multiplicity using the ALICE detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2016(1), Article 032. https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2016/01/032

Adam, J, Adamova, D, Aggarwal, MM, Aglieri Rinella, G, Agnello, M, Agrawal, N, Ahammed, Z, U. Ahn, S, Aiola, S, Aleksandrov, D, D , A, Molina, RA, Alici, A, Alkin, A, Bearden, I , Bøggild, H , Christensen, CH , Gulbrandsen, KH , Gaardhøje, JJ, Dalsgaard, HH, Nielsen, BS, Hansen, AC, Bilandzic, A, Chojnacki, M, Zaccolo, V, Zhou, Y & Bourjau, CA 2016, 'Study of cosmic ray events with high muon multiplicity using the ALICE detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider', Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, vol. 2016, no. 1, 032. https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2016/01/032

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title = "Study of cosmic ray events with high muon multiplicity using the ALICE detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider",

abstract = "ALICE is one of four large experiments at the CERN Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, specially designed to study particle production in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Located 52 meters underground with 28 meters of overburden rock, it has also been used to detect muons produced by cosmic ray interactions in the upper atmosphere. In this paper, we present the multiplicity distribution of these atmospheric muons and its comparison with Monte Carlo simulations. This analysis exploits the large size and excellent tracking capability of the ALICE Time Projection Chamber. A special emphasis is given to the study of high multiplicity events containing more than 100 reconstructed muons and corresponding to a muon areal density ρμ > 5.9 m-2. Similar events have been studied in previous underground experiments such as ALEPH and DELPHI at LEP. While these experiments were able to reproduce the measured muon multiplicity distribution with Monte Carlo simulations at low and intermediate multiplicities, their simulations failed to describe the frequency of the highest multiplicity events. In this work we show that the high multiplicity events observed in ALICE stem from primary cosmic rays with energies above 1016 eV and that the frequency of these events can be successfully described by assuming a heavy mass composition of primary cosmic rays in this energy range. The development of the resulting air showers was simulated using the latest version of QGSJET to model hadronic interactions. This observation places significant constraints on alternative, more exotic, production mechanisms for these events.",

author = "J. Adam and D. Adamova and M.M. Aggarwal and {Aglieri Rinella}, G. and Maria Agnello and N. Agrawal and Z. Ahammed and {U. Ahn}, S. and S. Aiola and D. Aleksandrov and Alessandro D and Molina, {Rafael A.} and A. Alici and A. Alkin and Ian Bearden and Hans B{\o}ggild and Christensen, {Christian Holm} and Gulbrandsen, {Kristjan Herlache} and Gaardh{\o}je, {Jens J{\o}rgen} and Dalsgaard, {Hans Hjersing} and Nielsen, {B{\o}rge Svane} and Hansen, {Alexander Colliander} and Ante Bilandzic and Marek Chojnacki and Valentina Zaccolo and You Zhou and Bourjau, {Christian Alexander}",

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T1 - Study of cosmic ray events with high muon multiplicity using the ALICE detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider

AU - Adam, J.

AU - Adamova, D.

AU - Aggarwal, M.M.

AU - Aglieri Rinella, G.

AU - Agnello, Maria

AU - Agrawal, N.

AU - Ahammed, Z.

AU - U. Ahn, S.

AU - Aiola, S.

AU - Aleksandrov, D.

AU - D , Alessandro

AU - Molina, Rafael A.

AU - Alici, A.

AU - Alkin, A.

AU - Bearden, Ian

AU - Bøggild, Hans

AU - Christensen, Christian Holm

AU - Gulbrandsen, Kristjan Herlache

AU - Gaardhøje, Jens Jørgen

AU - Dalsgaard, Hans Hjersing

AU - Nielsen, Børge Svane

AU - Hansen, Alexander Colliander

AU - Bilandzic, Ante

AU - Chojnacki, Marek

AU - Zaccolo, Valentina

AU - Zhou, You

AU - Bourjau, Christian Alexander

PY - 2016/1/19

Y1 - 2016/1/19

N2 - ALICE is one of four large experiments at the CERN Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, specially designed to study particle production in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Located 52 meters underground with 28 meters of overburden rock, it has also been used to detect muons produced by cosmic ray interactions in the upper atmosphere. In this paper, we present the multiplicity distribution of these atmospheric muons and its comparison with Monte Carlo simulations. This analysis exploits the large size and excellent tracking capability of the ALICE Time Projection Chamber. A special emphasis is given to the study of high multiplicity events containing more than 100 reconstructed muons and corresponding to a muon areal density ρμ > 5.9 m-2. Similar events have been studied in previous underground experiments such as ALEPH and DELPHI at LEP. While these experiments were able to reproduce the measured muon multiplicity distribution with Monte Carlo simulations at low and intermediate multiplicities, their simulations failed to describe the frequency of the highest multiplicity events. In this work we show that the high multiplicity events observed in ALICE stem from primary cosmic rays with energies above 1016 eV and that the frequency of these events can be successfully described by assuming a heavy mass composition of primary cosmic rays in this energy range. The development of the resulting air showers was simulated using the latest version of QGSJET to model hadronic interactions. This observation places significant constraints on alternative, more exotic, production mechanisms for these events.

AB - ALICE is one of four large experiments at the CERN Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, specially designed to study particle production in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Located 52 meters underground with 28 meters of overburden rock, it has also been used to detect muons produced by cosmic ray interactions in the upper atmosphere. In this paper, we present the multiplicity distribution of these atmospheric muons and its comparison with Monte Carlo simulations. This analysis exploits the large size and excellent tracking capability of the ALICE Time Projection Chamber. A special emphasis is given to the study of high multiplicity events containing more than 100 reconstructed muons and corresponding to a muon areal density ρμ > 5.9 m-2. Similar events have been studied in previous underground experiments such as ALEPH and DELPHI at LEP. While these experiments were able to reproduce the measured muon multiplicity distribution with Monte Carlo simulations at low and intermediate multiplicities, their simulations failed to describe the frequency of the highest multiplicity events. In this work we show that the high multiplicity events observed in ALICE stem from primary cosmic rays with energies above 1016 eV and that the frequency of these events can be successfully described by assuming a heavy mass composition of primary cosmic rays in this energy range. The development of the resulting air showers was simulated using the latest version of QGSJET to model hadronic interactions. This observation places significant constraints on alternative, more exotic, production mechanisms for these events.

U2 - 10.1088/1475-7516/2016/01/032

DO - 10.1088/1475-7516/2016/01/032

M3 - Journal article

SN - 1475-7516

VL - 2016

JO - Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics

JF - Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics

IS - 1

M1 - 032

ER -

Study of cosmic ray events with high muon multiplicity using the ALICE detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider

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