Observation of seasonal variation of atmospheric multiple-muon events in the NOvA Near Detector

/ Authors

M. Acero, P. Adamson, L. Aliaga, T. Alion, V. Allakhverdian, S. Altakarli, N. Anmov, A. Antoshkin, A. Aurisano, A. Back

and 181 more authors

C. Backhouse, M. Baird, N. Balashov, P. Baldi, B. Bambah, S. Bashar, K. Bays, S. Bending, R. Bernstein, V. Bhatnagar, B. Bhuyan, J. Bian, J. Blair, A. Booth, P. Bouř, C. Bromberg, N. Buchanan, A. Butkevich, S. Calvez, M. Campbell, T. Carroll, E. Catano-Mur, A. Cedeno, S. Childress, B. Choudhary, B. Chowdhury, T. Coan, M. Colo, L. Corwin, L. Cremonesi, G. Davies, P. Derwent, P. Ding, Z. Djurcic, D. Doyle, E. Dukes, H. Duyang, S. Edayath, R. Ehrlich, G. Feldman, P. Filip, W. Flanagan, M. Frank, H. Gallagher, R. Gandrajula, F. Gao, S. Germani, A. Giri, R. Gomes, M. Goodman, V. Grichine, M. Groh, R. Group, B. Guo, A. Habig, F. Hakl, J. Hartnell, R. Hatcher, A. Hatzikoutelis, K. Heller, J. Hewes, A. Himmel, A. Holin, B. Howard, J. Huang, J. Hylen, F. Jediný, C. Johnson, M. Judah, I. Kakorin, D. Kalra, D. Kaplan, R. Keloth, O. Klimov, L. Koerner, L. Kolupaeva, S. Kotelnikov, A. Kreymer, Ch. Kulenberg, A. Kumar, C. Kuruppu, V. Kus, T. Lackey, K. Lang, S. Lin, M. Lokajicek, J. Lozier, S. Luchuk, S. Magill, W. Mann, M. Marshak, V. Matveev, D. Méndez, M. Messier, H. Meyer, T. Miao, W. Miller, S. Mishra, A. Mislivec, R. Mohanta, A. Moren, L. Mualem, M. Muether, S. Mufson, K. Mulder, R. Murphy, J. Musser, D. Naples, N. Nayak, J. Nelson, R. Nichol, G. Nikseresht, E. Niner, A. Norman, T. Nosek, A. Olshevskiy, T. Olson, J. Paley, R. Patterson, G. Pawloski, O. Petrova, R. Petti, D. Phan, R. Plunkett, B. Potukuchi, C. Principato, F. Psihas, V. Raj, R. Rameika, B. Rebel, P. Rojas, V. Ryabov, O. Samoylov, M. Sánchez, P. Schreiner, I. Seong, P. Shanahan, A. Sheshukov, P. Singh, V. Singh, E. Smith, J. Smolík, P. Snopok, N. Solomey, E. Song, A. Sousa, K. Soustruznik, M. Strait, L. Suter, A. Sutton, R. Talaga, P. Tas, R. B. Thayyullathil, J. Thomas, E. Tiras, S. Tognini, D. Torbunov, J. Tripathi, A. Tsaris, Y. Torun, J. Urheim, P. Vahle, J. Vasel, L. Vinton, P. Vokac, T. Vrba, M. Wallbank, B. Wang, T. Warburton, M. Wetstein, M. While, D. Whittington, S. Wojcicki, J. Wolcott, N. Yadav, A. Y. Dombara, K. Yonehara, S. Yu, S. Zadorozhnyy, J. Zálešák, R. Zwaska

/ Abstract

Using two years of data from the NOvA Near Detector at Fermilab, we report a seasonal variation of cosmic ray induced multiple-muon event rates which has an opposite phase to the seasonal variation in the atmospheric temperature. The strength of the seasonal multipl$ increase as a function of the muon multiplicity. However, no significant dependence of the strength of the seasonal variation of the multiple-muon variation is seen as a function of the muon zenith angle, or the spatial or angular separation between the correlated muons.

Journal: Physical Review D

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.99.122004