Measurement of the cosmic ray and neutrino-induced muon flux at the Sudbury neutrino observatory

Authors

B. Aharmim, Laurentian University
S. N. Ahmed, Queen’s University
T. C. Andersen, University of Guelph
A. E. Anthony, The University of Texas at Austin
N. Barros, Laboratório de Instrumentacao e Física Experimental de Partículas
E. W. Beier, University of Pennsylvania
A. Bellerive, Carleton University
B. Beltran, University of Alberta
M. Bergevin, University of Guelph
S. D. Biller, University of Oxford
K. Boudjemline, Carleton University
M. G. Boulay, Los Alamos National Laboratory
T. H. Burritt, University of Washington
B. Cai, Queen’s University
Y. D. Chan, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
M. Chen, Queen’s University
M. C. Chon, University of Guelph
B. T. Cleveland, University of Oxford
G. A. Cox-Mobrand, University of Washington
C. A. Currat, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
X. Dai, Carleton University
F. Dalnoki-Veress, Carleton University
H. Deng, University of Pennsylvania
J. Detwiler, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
P. J. Doe, University of Washington
R. S. Dosanjh, Carleton University
G. Doucas, University of Oxford
P. L. Drouin, Carleton University

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-10-2009

Abstract

Results are reported on the measurement of the atmospheric neutrino-induced muon flux at a depth of 2 kilometers below the Earth's surface from 1229 days of operation of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO). By measuring the flux of through-going muons as a function of zenith angle, the SNO experiment can distinguish between the oscillated and unoscillated portion of the neutrino flux. A total of 514 muonlike events are measured between -1≤cos θzenith≤0.4 in a total exposure of 2.30×1014cm2s. The measured flux normalization is 1.22±0.09 times the Bartol three-dimensional flux prediction. This is the first measurement of the neutrino-induced flux where neutrino oscillations are minimized. The zenith distribution is consistent with previously measured atmospheric neutrino oscillation parameters. The cosmic ray muon flux at SNO with zenith angle cos θzenith>0.4 is measured to be (3.31±0.01(stat)±0.09(sys))×10-10μ/s/cm2. © 2009 The American Physical Society.

Publication Source (Journal or Book title)

Physical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology

Recommended Citation

Aharmim, B., Ahmed, S., Andersen, T., Anthony, A., Barros, N., Beier, E., Bellerive, A., Beltran, B., Bergevin, M., Biller, S., Boudjemline, K., Boulay, M., Burritt, T., Cai, B., Chan, Y., Chen, M., Chon, M., Cleveland, B., Cox-Mobrand, G., Currat, C., Dai, X., Dalnoki-Veress, F., Deng, H., Detwiler, J., Doe, P., Dosanjh, R., Doucas, G., & Drouin, P. (2009). Measurement of the cosmic ray and neutrino-induced muon flux at the Sudbury neutrino observatory. Physical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology, 80 (1) https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.80.012001