Atmospheric muons: experimental aspects

TL;DR

This paper reviews six decades of atmospheric muon flux and energy spectrum measurements across various experimental setups, discussing systematic errors, muon characteristics, and their relation to neutrino observations.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive synthesis of experimental data on atmospheric muons, highlighting systematic uncertainties and connections to neutrino measurements.

Findings

Detailed overview of muon flux and spectrum measurements

Analysis of systematic errors in muon experiments

Discussion of muon characteristics in different environments

Abstract

We present a review of atmospheric muon flux and energy spectrum measurements over almost six decades of muon momentum. Sea-level and underground/water/ice experiments are considered. Possible sources of systematic errors in the measurements are examinated. The characteristics of underground/water muons (muons in bundle, lateral distribution, energy spectrum) are discussed. The connection between the atmospheric muon and neutrino measurements are also reported.