Underground Muon Physics with the MACRO experiment

TL;DR

This paper discusses the MACRO experiment's underground muon observations, analyzing their properties to improve understanding of cosmic rays, test simulations, and explore muon bundle structures.

Contribution

It provides new measurements and insights into muon distributions and cosmic ray composition, and refines Monte Carlo models of hadronic interactions and muon propagation.

Findings

Measured vertical muon intensity and multiplicity distributions

Identified substructures within muon bundles

Enhanced the accuracy of cosmic ray and muon propagation models

Abstract

Underground muon events detected by the MACRO experiment at Gran Sasso have been studied for different purposes. The studies include the vertical muon intensity measurement, multiplicity distribution, lateral and angular muon distribution and searches for substructures inside muon bundles. These analyses have contributed to bring new insights in cosmic ray physics, in particular in the framework of primary cosmic ray composition studies. Moreover, this activity allows the testing and tuning of Monte Carlo simulations, in particular for aspects associated with models of hadronic interactions and muon propagation through the rock.