Seasonal variation of multiple-muon cosmic ray air showers observed in the NOvA detector on the surface

Creators: Acero, M. A.; Adamson, P.; Aliaga, L.; Anfimov, N.; Antoshkin, A.; Arrieta-Diaz, E.; Asquith, L.; Aurisano, A.; Back, A.; Backhouse, C.; Baird, M.; Balashov, N.; Baldi, P.; Bambah, B. A.; Bashar, S.; Bays, K.; Bernstein, R.; Bhatnagar, V.; Bhuyan, B.; Bian, J.; Blair, J.; Booth, A. C.; Bowles, R.; Bromberg, C.; Buchanan, N.; Butkevich, A.; Calvez, S.; Carroll, T. J.; Catano-Mur, E.; Choudhary, B. C.; Christensen, A.; Coan, T. E.; Colo, M.; Cremonesi, L.; Davies, G. S.; Derwent, P. F.; Ding, P.; Djurcic, Z.; Dolce, M.; Doyle, D.; Dueñas Tonguino, D.; Dukes, E. C.; Duyang, H.; Edayath, S.; Ehrlich, R.; Elkins, M.; Ewart, E.; Feldman, G. J.; Filip, P.; Franc, J.; Frank, M. J.; Gallagher, H. R.; Gandrajula, R.; Gao, F.; Giri, A.; Gomes, R. A.; Goodman, M. C.; Grichine, V.; Groh, M.; Group, R.; Guo, B.; Habig, A.; Hakl, F.; Hall, A.; Hartnell, J.; Hatcher, R.; Hausner, H.; Heller, K.; Hewes, J.; Himmel, A.; Holin, A.; Jargowsky, B.; Jarosz, J.; Jediny, F.; Johnson, C.; Judah, M.; Kakorin, I.; Kalra, D.; Kaplan, D. M.; Kalitkina, A.; Keloth, R.; Klimov, O.; Koerner, L. W.; Kolupaeva, L.; Kotelnikov, S.; Kralik, R.; Kullenberg, Ch.; Kubu, M.; Kumar, A.; Kuruppu, C. D.; Kus, V.; Lackey, T.; Lang, K.; Lasorak, P.; Lesmeister, J.; Lin, S.; Lister, A.; Liu, J.; Lokajicek, M.; Magill, S.; Manrique Plata, M.; Mann, W. A.; Marshak, M. L.; Martinez-Casales, M.; Matveev, V.; Mayes, B.; Messier, M. D.; Meyer, H.; Miao, T.; Miller, W. H.; Mishra, S. R.; Mislivec, A.; Mohanta, R.; Moren, A.; Morozova, A.; Mu, W.; Mualem, L.; Muether, M.; Mulder, K.; Naples, D.; Nayak, N.; Nelson, J. K.; Nichol, R.; Niner, E.; Norman, A.; Norrick, A.; Nosek, T.; Oh, H.; Olshevskiy, A.; Olson, T.; Ott, J.; Paley, J.; Patterson, R. B.; Pawloski, G.; Petrova, O.; Petti, R.; Phan, D. D.; Plunkett, R. K.; Porter, J. C. C.; Rafique, A.; Raj, V.; Rajaoalisoa, M.; Ramson, B.; Rebel, B.; Rojas, P.; Ryabov, V.; Samoylov, O.; Sanchez, M. C.; Sánchez Falero, S.; Shanahan, P.; Sheshukov, A.; Singh, P.; Singh, V.; Smith, E.; Smolik, J.; Snopok, P.; Solomey, N.; Sousa, A.; Soustruznik, K.; Strait, M.; Suter, L.; Sutton, A.; Swain, S.; Sweeney, C.; Tapia Oregui, B.; Tas, P.; Thakore, T.; Thayyullathil, R. B.; Thomas, J.; Tiras, E.; Tognini, S. C.; Tripathi, J.; Trokan-Tenorio, J.; Torun, Y.; Urheim, J.; Vahle, P.; Vallari, Z.; Vasel, J.; Vokac, P.; Vrba, T.; Wallbank, M.; Warburton, T. K.; Wetstein, M.; Whittington, D.; Wickremasinghe, D. A.; Wojcicki, S. G.; Wolcott, J.; Wu, W.; Xiao, Y.; Yallappa Dombara, A.; Yonehara, K.; Yu, S.; Yu, Y.; Zadorozhnyy, S.; Zalesak, J.; Zhang, Y.; Zwaska, R.; NOvA Collaboration

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Abstract

We report the rate of cosmic ray air showers with multiplicities exceeding 15 muon tracks recorded in the NOvA Far Detector between May 2016 and May 2018. The detector is located on the surface under an overburden of 3.6 meters water equivalent. We observe a seasonal dependence in the rate of multiple-muon showers, which varies in magnitude with multiplicity and zenith angle. During this period, the effective atmospheric temperature and surface pressure ranged between 210 K and 230 K and 940 mbar and 990 mbar, respectively; the shower rates are anticorrelated with the variation in the effective temperature. The variations are about 30% larger for the highest multiplicities than the lowest multiplicities and 20% larger for showers near the horizon than vertical showers.

Additional Information

© 2021 Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3. Received 11 May 2021; accepted 8 July 2021; published 30 July 2021. This document was prepared by the NOvA Collaboration using the resources of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), a U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, High Energy Physics User Facility. Fermilab is managed by Fermi Research Alliance, LLC, acting under Contract No. DE-AC02-07CH11359. This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy; the U.S. National Science Foundation; the Department of Science and Technology, India; the European Research Council; the MSMT CR, GA UK, Czech Republic; the RAS, RFBR, RMES, RSF, and BASIS Foundation, Russia; CNPq and FAPEG, Brazil; STFC, UKRI, and the Royal Society, United Kingdom; and the state and University of Minnesota. We are grateful for the contributions of the staffs of the University of Minnesota at the Ash River Laboratory and of Fermilab.

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