Estimating Flux Rates
Estimating Flux Rates
Muon Flux rates are strongly affected by: Scintillator surface area Orientation Spacing and solid angle acceptance Intervening absorber material and thickness Altitude
A simple model is presented to allow estimating flux rates due to area, spacing, and absorber.
If you would like to know more about how this functions you may want to read the following notes.
This model uses the following rules-of-thumb: Sea Level muon spectrum is flat with a slope of dN/dE = 0.004/(GeV cm2 s sr) Energy absorption is proportional to "range" X = density x thickness. This has units of g/cm2 or since water has a density of 1 g/cm3, one can use the unit of "cm W.E." or cm of water equivalent. Most materials absorb muon energy at a rate of dE/dX = 2 MeV / cm W.E. Incoming muon flux drops off as the cosine squared of the angle from zenith
Muon flux accepted by the detector will depend on the spacing between the detector and the cos square drop and is assumed for vertical orientation.