Exploring the lifetime and cosmic frontier with the MATHUSLA detector

TL;DR

MATHUSLA is a large-scale detector designed to study long-lived particles from LHC collisions and cosmic ray air showers, offering unprecedented coverage and sensitivity for particle physics and cosmic ray research.

Contribution

This paper presents the design and concept of the MATHUSLA detector, highlighting its capability to detect long-lived particles and cosmic rays with a large surface area and advanced readout systems.

Findings

MATHUSLA can detect long-lived particles from LHC collisions.

It significantly enhances cosmic ray air shower studies.

The detector's design allows for improved measurements at large zenith angles.

Abstract

The MATHUSLA detector to be installed on the surface above and somewhat displaced from the CMS interaction point (IP) will cover an area of $100\times 100$ m$^2$ containing many layers of scintillators planes to establish the space and time coordinates of charged particle tracks. This is an unprecedented detector in terms of size and continuous sensitivity over an area of $10^4$ m$^2$. This document describes the present MATHUSLA detector concept that is sensitive to both long-lived particles produced in the LHC collisions in CMS and cosmic ray extended air showers (EAS). The ability to improve significantly cosmic ray studies by adding a $10^4$ m$^2$ layer of RPCs that have both digital and analogue readout similar to the ARGO-YBJ experiment will be discussed with focus on large zenith angle EAS.