Intermediate & Advanced Laboratory

"Experiment is the sole judge of scientific 'truth'"
- Richard Feynman -

Muon Lifetime

High Energy Physics
Reductionism in hand, the particle physicists march forward. With goals so surely to be attained, and so often exactly achieved, the standard model is a wonder.

Anonymous

In this experiment you will measure the lifetime of muons created in the upper atmosphere by cosmic rays. More importantly, you will be introduced to methods using scintillators, photomultiplier tubes, and various data acquisition modules.

Top: High voltage source for biasing the PMT. Bottom, Left-Right: Discriminator, Counter, AND gate, TAC, Delay module, Auxiliary Counter, Signal Generator, Auxiliary Counter.

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The green and black wires are connected to the PMT that you will be using. It is connected to a wedge shaped light guide, which channels photons from the cubical scintillator located in the center of the device.

        click to enlarge