Application of the Duperier method to the analysis of the cosmic muon flux dependence on the meteorological parameters, based on the DANSS detector data

TL;DR

This study applies the Duperier method to analyze how meteorological parameters influence cosmic muon flux, using four years of data from the DANSS detector located near a nuclear reactor, revealing correlations across different zenith angles.

Contribution

The paper introduces the application of the Duperier method to correlate meteorological parameters with cosmic muon flux at an intermediate underground level.

Findings

Barometric, height, and temperature correlation coefficients vary with zenith angle.

Four years of muon data show significant meteorological influences on muon flux.

Results enhance understanding of environmental effects on cosmic ray detection.

Abstract

The detector DANSS is located under n industrial nuclear reactor at Kalininskaya Nuclear Power Plant. This location provides ~ 50 m.w.e. reduction of the cosmic muon flux in the vertical direction, which places the experiment in an intermediate position between ground and underground experiments in terms of shielding from the cosmic rays. The detector DANSS is located under an industrial nuclear reactor at Kalininskaya Nuclear Power Plant. This location provides ~50 m.w.e. reduction of the cosmic muon flux in the vertical direction, which places the experiment in an intermediate position between ground and underground experiments in terms of shielding from the cosmic rays. The detector's sensitive area consists of 2500 plastic scintillator counters, each 100x4x1 cm$^3$ in size, making in total a 1 m$^3$ volume, which is surrounded by a muon veto system and multiple layers of passive shielding. The main goal of the DANSS experiment is to study the antineutrino spectra at different distances from the source. For this purpose the detector is placed on a lifting platform, and the data is collected at three positions: 10.9 m, 11.9 m and 12.9 m from the center of the reactor core. The detector is capable of reconstructing muon tracks passing though the sensitive volume. In this work the barometric, height and temperature correlation coefficients are calculated in three areas of the zenith angle $\theta$ using the Duperier approach. These results are based on the muon data collected during four years.