Cosmic Muon Flux Measurements at the Kimballton Underground Research Facility

TL;DR

This study measures muon flux at various depths inside the Kimballton Underground Research Facility using plastic scintillator detectors, deriving an empirical formula for muon flux based on overburden, and validating it against theoretical models.

Contribution

It provides new muon flux measurements at different depths and introduces an empirical formula to estimate flux based on overburden.

Findings

Muon flux decreases with increasing overburden.

Empirical formula accurately estimates muon flux inside the mine.

Results agree with existing analytical and simulation models.

Abstract

In this article, the results from a series of muon flux measurements conducted at the Kimballton Underground Research Facility (KURF), Virginia, United States, are presented. The detector employed for these investigations, is made of plastic scintillator bars readout by wavelength shifting fibers and multianode photomultiplier tubes. Data was taken at several locations inside KURF, spanning rock overburden values from ~ 200 to 1450 m.w.e. From the extracted muon rates an empirical formula was devised, that estimates the muon flux inside the mine as a function of the overburden. The results are in good agreement with muon flux calculations based on analytical models and MUSIC.