Explanation of the seasonal variation of cosmic multiple muon events observed with the NOvA Near Detector
| Title: | Explanation of the seasonal variation of cosmic multiple muon events observed with the NOvA Near Detector |
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| Authors: | S Abubakar; MA Acero; B Acharya; P Adamson; N Anfimov; A Antoshkin; E Arrieta-Diaz; Lily Asquith; A Aurisano; A Back; N Balashov; P Baldi; BA Bambah; EF Bannister; A Barros; J Barrow; A Bat; TJC Bezerra; V Bhatnagar; B Bhuyan; J Bian; AC Booth; R Bowles; B Brahma; C Bromberg; N Buchanan; A Butkevich; TJ Carroll; E Catano-Mur; JP Cesar; S Chaudhary; R Chirco; S Choate; BC Choudhary; OTK Chow; A Christensen; MF Cicala; TE Coan; T Contreras; A Cooleybeck; D Coveyou; L Cremonesi; GS Davies; PF Derwent; Z Djurcic; K Dobbs; D Dueñas Tonguino; EC Dukes; A Dye; R Ehrlich; E Ewart; P Filip; MJ Frank; HR Gallagher; A Giri; RA Gomes; MC Goodman; R Group; E Guan; A Habig; F Hakl; Jeff Hartnell; R Hatcher; JM Hays; M He; K Heller; V Hewes; A Himmel; T Horoho; X Huang; A Ivanova; I Kakorin; A Kalitkina; DM Kaplan; A Khanam; B Kirezli; J Kleykamp; O Klimov; LW Koerner; L Kolupaeva; R Kralik; A Kumar; CD Kuruppu; V Kus; T Lackey; K Lang; J Lesmeister; A Lister; JA Lock; S Magill; WA Mann; MT Manoharan; M Manrique Plata; ML Marshak; M Martinez-Casales; V Matveev; A Medhi; B Mehta; MD Messier; H Meyer |
| Publication Year: | 2026 |
| Collection: | University of Sussex (US): Figshare |
| Subject Terms: | Physical sciences; Particle and high energy physics; 5107 Particle and High Energy Physics; 51 Physical Sciences |
| Description: | The flux of cosmic ray muons at the Earth’s surface exhibits seasonal variations due to changes in the temperature of the atmosphere affecting the production and decay of mesons in the upper atmosphere. Using 1473 live days of data collected by the NuMI Off-axis νe Appearance (NOvA) Near Detector during 2018–2022, we studied the seasonal pattern in the multiple-muon event rate. The data confirm an anticorrelation between the multiple-muon event rate and effective atmospheric temperature, consistent across all the years of data. Previous analyses from MINOS and NOvA saw a similar anticorrelation but did not include an explanation. We find that this anticorrelation is driven by altitude–geometry effects as the average muon production height changes with the season. This has been studied with a CORSIKA cosmic ray simulation package by varying atmospheric parameters, and provides an explanation to a longstanding discrepancy between the seasonal phases of single and multiple-muon events. |
| Document Type: | article in journal/newspaper |
| Language: | unknown |
| Relation: | 10779/uos.31617136.v1; https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Explanation_of_the_seasonal_variation_of_cosmic_multiple_muon_events_observed_with_the_NOvA_Near_Detector/31617136 |
| Availability: | https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Explanation_of_the_seasonal_variation_of_cosmic_multiple_muon_events_observed_with_the_NOvA_Near_Detector/31617136 |
| Rights: | CC BY 4.0 |
| Accession Number: | edsbas.8CD23F63 |
| Database: | BASE |