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Underground muon energy spectrum and its relevance for muon astronomy

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Lettere al Nuovo Cimento (1971-1985)

Summary

A striking result from the NUSEX (1) and SOUDAN (2) experiments is the discovery of a high flux of muons from the direction of Cygnus X-3 displaying the typical 4.8 hour time modulation of this source. The differential energy spectrum of these muons is much flatter (γ∼2) than that for ordinary atmospheric muons (γ∼3.71). This implies a very different shape for the local deep underground muon energy spectrum. We show that a measurement of the content of high-energy muons (> 500 GeV) in underground experiments is a strong signature of their origin.

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Castellina, A., Piazzoli, B.D., Mannocchi, G. et al. Underground muon energy spectrum and its relevance for muon astronomy. Lett. Nuovo Cimento 44, 401–404 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02746704

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02746704

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