FIRST YEAR LABORATORY: PROJECT PROPOSAL - 2009
PROJECT TITLE
CODE
Investigating Cosmic Ray Showers (Theoretical)
DEMONSTRATOR
David Colling
E-MAIL ADDRESS
d.colling@imperial.ac.uk
TELEPHONE
NUMBER
X47816
ROOM NUMBER
Blackett 529b
HEPP11
RESEARCH
GROUP
HEP
PROJECT OUTLINE:
Cosmic rays were discovered by Victor Hess in the early part of the 20th Century.
Since then they have played an interesting role in some of the great discoveries in physics
and they continue to be studied in a number of large experiments around the world. Cosmic
rays are high energy particles that interact in the upper atmosphere. These interactions cause
a cascade of secondary particles and it is the decay products (mainly muons) of these
cascades that we measure at the earth’s surface.
In your first year lab experiments you will have measured the flux of these muons as
a function of angle. The purpose of this experiments is to use the same apparatus (with any
other apparatus available in the undergraduate labs) to try to investigate whether or not these
showers have any substructure i.e. any sort of “clumping”. You may also want to examine
the time series of these showers.
This project requires two pairs of students, one pair to build the apparatus and
perform the experiment, and a second pair to model the situation and to devise the sampling
strategies that will best reveal substructure of different sizes within the showers. Both parts
of the experiment are equally important in finding a clear result however they require
complementary skills. The first pair will have to be very practical and like making and
performing experiments (some interfacing to computers will probably also be required),
whereas the second pair will be (or need to become) good programmers and will need to
think about the significance of different scientific results. So please put a P (for practical) or
T (for theoretical) after your name when you sign up for this experiment. Clearly, there
needs to be close collaboration between these pairs.
If you have any questions then please feel free to come to see me about this project.
This Project is available on
Thurs/Fri
Students: Please write your name below if you are planning to bid for this project.
You must also fill out the bidding form!
Code:
PROJECT ASSESSMENT SHEET – 2009
Leave blank
Are there any safety aspects which need special attention (i.e. use of lasers, radioactive
sources)?
High Voltage with PMTs.
Is this a computing project?
50% yes 50% no
If it is would it be done on:
[a] The PC network
[b] Computing facilities within your research group
Probably [b] but need to confirm
If the answer to [a] was yes then complete the following three questions:
[i] Do you require additional software or libraries?
[ii] Do you anticipate exceptional cpu or disk storage
(>100Mbyte) requirements?
[iii] Have you discussed your requirements with Martin
Morris?
Which programming language are you wishing to use?
C++
Are you proficient in the necessary programming language
Yes