American College gets muon detector

Dr.Satyanarayana Bheesette, demonstrating a device built by Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, for detecting and studying Muon particles, at American College in Madurai on Wednesday. Photo: S. James

The American College here on Wednesday became one of the few institutions in the country to get a portable muon detector developed by Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), a key institute involved in the proposed India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) in Theni.

The developer of the detector, B. Satyanarayana, Scientific Officer (H) with the Department of High Energy Physics of TIFR, said that the idea was to kindle interest among students about particle physics research and quell misconceptions about it.

He said that the detector was developed with simple fundamentals and easily available materials so that students could build similar detectors on their own.

Muon, an elementary subatomic particle, is received on earth’s surface roughly at the rate of one muon per square centimetre per second.

“Studying them can easily demonstrate several principles of physics, including Einstein’s theory of relativity and time dilation,” he said.

The detector has a box, fitted with a photomultiplier and scintillator, to capture the muons.

The amplified signals from the box are fed to a processing unit with integrated circuits. The output from the processing unit can be monitored in a computer by connecting through a USB cable.

“The processing unit captures lifetime of the detected muons, which can then be used to calculate other parameters,” he said.

He said that though the objective of the highly sophisticated and extremely large detectors to be used in INO is to detect neutrinos, they will also be detecting muons.

“Detecting a neutrino is a rare event but detection of muons is not. So, detection of muons is a way to ensure that the neutrino detector is working properly,” he also said.

Access

Stating that The American College was the only college to actively collaborate with INO, Davamani Christober, college Principal, said that they will provide access to students from other institutions as well to make use of the detector.

“We will also encourage our students to develop similar detectors and give it to other colleges,” he said.

Stephen Inbanathan, Head of Applied Science and INO Centre in the college, said that the detector would be kept in a dedicated lab to be set up with aid from Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences.