Investigations of Muon Flux Variations Detected Using Veto Detectors of the Digital Gamma-rays Spectrometer

Abstract

This paper presents the results of cosmic ray muons flux monitoring registered by a digital gamma-ray spectrometer’s active shield made of five large plastic scintillators. In traditional, i.e., analogue active shields working in anticoincidence mode with germanium detectors, the generated data are used only as a gating signal and are not stored. However, thanks to digital acquisition applied in designed novel gamma-ray spectrometers enabling offline studies, it has not only become possible to use generated data to reduce the germanium detector background (cosmic rays veto system) but also to initialize long-term monitoring of the muon flux intensity. Furthermore, various analyses methods prove the relevance of the acquired data. Fourier analyses revealed the presence of daily (24 h), near-monthly (27 days) and over bi-monthly (68 days) cycles.

Keywords

• digital gamma-rays spectrometer
• cosmic veto
• active shield
• muons
• muon flux periodicity