DIY muon detector -- Is it really working?

[ORF]

Hello

I found this video on YouTube,


It seems that most of the counts are noise of the PMT...

Thank you for your time.

Regards.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Is there a question in there?

 

[ORF]

Hello

Sorry, I forgot to repeat the question in the title. Is the homemade experimental setup detecting Cherenkov from muons, or it is detecting other things?

Thank you for your time.

Regards,
ORF

 

[Vanadium 50]

I don't think it's possible to answer your question from a movie clip.

 

[ORF]

Hello

I think this is the description of the experimental setup in the video
http://www.instructables.com/id/Detecting-cosmis-muons-in-a-simple-can/

Here there is a deeper explanation of a similar experimental setup,
http://physicsopenlab.org/2016/04/24/diy-cherenkov-detector/

I was curious if detecting muons was so simple, or this pages are just clickbait.

Thank you for your time.

Regards.

 

[mfb]

Getting hits from muons is not hard, figuring out which of the hits are muons and which hits are something else is much harder.

 

[ORF]

Hello

figuring out which of the hits are muons and which hits are something else is much harder.

That was my doubt: in principle, they prove that part of the hits are muons because:
-- The rate of hits increase if water is used (instead of air)
-- The rate of hits increase if a heavy material is used above the detector (in principle, this material will have more probability of interaction with muons, and the detector will notice the secondary particles).

Do these two tests confirm that part of the hits are caused by muons?

And by the way... why is harder to differ muons from something else?

Thank you for your time.

Regards.

 

[mfb]

Water (as shielding?) shouldn't increase the muon rate.
Based on These slides, 17 meter of water reduce the flux by a factor 10 (they discuss neutrons, but induced by muons). You need a lot of water or other materials to get relevant shielding.

And by the way... why is harder to differ muons from something else?

It is generally difficult to find out what produced a hit. You need a coincidence detection setup, an energy measurement, or something similar.

 

[ORF]

Hello

Sorry, I said it wrongly:
-Changing the scintillator material (instead of air, water), the rate of counts was doubled.
-Adding few blocks at the top of the detector, as a shielding, the increase of counts increased (in the video is said that this may have sense).

You need a coincidence detection setup, an energy measurement, or something similar.

Ok, maybe the easiest way is a coincidence detection setup.

Thank you for your time.

Regards.