Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata 30 th – 31st March 2010

Determination of Muon Lifetime

Harsh Purwar (07MS – 76)
VI th Semester, Integrated M.S.
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata

Experiment No. – 5
Nuclear and Particle Physics Lab (PH – 325)

Objective of the Experiment:

 To study Muon decay and determine its mean lifetime and half life in its rest frame.

Introduction:
Muons 𝜇 − are elementary particles just like electrons. Like electrons they are also leptons with spin ½
and do not experience strong force. They are unstable sub-atomic particles. Like all elementary particles,
the muons also have their corresponding anti-particles of opposite charge and equal mass and spin: the
anti-muon (also called a positive muon) denoted by 𝜇 +. Muon has a mass of around 105.7 MeV and is
roughly 200 times heavier than an electron. The interactions that muons experience are very similar to that
of an electron.
As mentioned muon is an unstable particle and decays via weak interaction into an electron (or a positron)
and two neutrinos (actually one neutrino and one anti-neutrino).
𝜇 − → 𝑒 − + 𝜈𝑒 + 𝜈𝜇
𝜇 + → 𝑒 + + 𝜈𝑒 + 𝜈𝜇
The mean life of decay is about 10−6 sec. A more precise value is determined in this experiment.

Theory:
In this experiment to determine the mean lifetime of the muons we need a source that emits/produces the
muons. But to find such a source is practically not possible, so the muons used were the muons produced
naturally when the cosmic rays from outer space enter and interact with the gases in the earth’s
atmosphere.

Production of Muons from Cosmic Rays:

Cosmic rays are energetic particles originating from outer space that impinge on Earth’s atmosphere.
Almost 90% of all the incoming cosmic ray particles are simple protons, with nearly 10% being helium
nuclei (alpha particles), and below 1% are the heavier elements, beta particles or the gamma ray photons.
The term ray is a misnomer, as cosmic particles arrive individually, not in the form of a ray or beam of
particles.
When cosmic ray particles enter the Earth's upper atmosphere, they collide with gas molecules, mainly
oxygen and nitrogen, to produce a cascade of lighter particles, so-called air shower. These lighter particles
then lead to a variety of nuclear reactions. A few of them are explained below.
As mentioned Cosmic ray particles are mainly energetic protons which on interacting with various gases
produce other elementary particles such as pi mesons, neutrons, photons etc.
𝑝 + 𝑝 → 𝑝 + 𝑛 + 𝜋+
𝑝 + 𝑝 → 𝑑 + 𝜋+
𝑝 + 𝑛 → 𝑛 + 𝑛 + 𝜋+
𝑝 + 𝑛 → 𝑝 + 𝑝 + 𝜋−

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Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata 30 th – 31st March 2010
𝑝 + 𝛾 → 𝑝 + 𝜋0
𝜋− + 𝑝 → 𝑛 + 𝜋0
High energy photons can also produce pions,
𝛾 + 𝑝 → 𝑛 + 𝜋+
𝛾 + 𝑛 → 𝑝 + 𝜋−

Figure 1: Simplified air shower of particles.

These charged pions then decay and produce muons,

𝜋 − → 𝜇 − + 𝜈𝜇
𝜋 + → 𝜇 + + 𝜈𝜇
The muons thus formed may begin their journey towards the Earth’s surface. Most muons are supposedly
created at a height of about 15 km above the Earth’s surface with energy of about 4 GeV. Quite clearly
their speeds are in the relativistic limits and therefore we have to take time dilation into account. These
muons in their rest frame have the same lifetime of about 2.2 µs, but for earth based detectors, time
dilation comes into action and thus effectively the muon lifetime increases. That explains why most of the
muons don’t decay before reaching us.
These muons then decay via weak interaction into electrons (or positrons) and neutrinos,
𝜇 − → 𝑒 − + 𝜈𝑒 + 𝜈𝜇
𝜇 + → 𝑒 + + 𝜈𝑒 + 𝜈𝜇

Detection of Muons:
Muons are detected using a scintillator detector along with the photo-multiplier tube. In scintillator
detector the scintillation material used here is a plastic detector which produces two scintillations, one
when the muon arrives and another when it decays. The energetic muons enter the detector and are
slowed down to rest. And the time difference between the two scintillations produced is measured by an
appropriate (complex) electronic circuit and the output is saved in an ASCII file in the computer. Thus the
rest frame decay time or lifetime of individual muons is measured. The detailed working of a scintillator
detector and photomultiplier tube has already been explained in previous reports (single-channel analyzer
and multi-channel analyzer).

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Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata 30 th – 31st March 2010
Procedure:
 All the electrical components were connected and were switched on (including the computer).
 The muon lifetime data recording software/program was run and was allowed to run for about 24
hours so as to get sufficient amount of data for extracting some statistically significant results.
 The program was stopped after about 24 hours by pressing ‘q’ on keyboard. Make sure that there is
no power failure during these hours unless there is some secondary power source (like inverter,
UPS etc.).
 The collected data was analyzed using MATLAB (Microsoft Excel could also be used for the same)
and the results are quoted in the next section.
Following is a sample of the data file created by the software/program ones it is executed:

SAMPLE DATA TIME DATE SAMPLE DATA TIME DATE

1 121 9:32:58 30-03-2010 11 0 9:34:33 30-03-2010
2 217 9:33:15 30-03-2010 12 17 9:34:57 30-03-2010
3 0 9:33:16 30-03-2010 13 40 9:35:01 30-03-2010
4 0 9:33:19 30-03-2010 14 0 9:35:14 30-03-2010
5 0 9:33:28 30-03-2010 15 0 9:35:20 30-03-2010
6 28 9:33:37 30-03-2010 16 20 9:35:29 30-03-2010
7 31 9:33:49 30-03-2010 17 0 9:35:30 30-03-2010
8 55 9:33:57 30-03-2010 18 41 9:35:45 30-03-2010
9 0 9:33:59 30-03-2010 19 182 9:35:46 30-03-2010
10 0 9:34:24 30-03-2010 20 127 9:36:09 30-03-2010

 Here DATA field gives the time in 100 ns taken by the 𝑖 𝑡ℎ SAMPLE or muon to decay.

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Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata 30 th – 31st March 2010
Observations/Results:
Table 1: For recording the number of muons decayed in time (t).

Decay Time # 𝝁 decays Decay Time # 𝝁 decays Decay Time # 𝝁 decays Decay Time # 𝝁 decays
(100 ns) recorded (100 ns) recorded (100 ns) recorded (100 ns) recorded
1 107 44 28 87 10 130 5
2 161 45 25 88 7 131 2
3 199 46 24 89 5 132 7
4 161 47 32 90 9 133 7
5 172 48 21 91 4 134 5
6 148 49 29 92 9 135 4
7 184 50 24 93 9 136 4
8 133 51 30 94 9 137 4
9 147 52 32 95 9 138 5
10 127 53 13 96 3 139 6
11 144 54 15 97 7 140 4
12 115 55 21 98 11 141 7
13 92 56 23 99 14 142 5
14 114 57 17 100 6 143 3
15 114 58 12 101 9 144 4
16 77 59 23 102 3 145 3
17 86 60 16 103 13 146 9
18 75 61 9 104 8 147 5
19 82 62 18 105 8 148 6
20 73 63 29 106 3 149 5
21 80 64 16 107 10 150 3
22 81 65 10 108 4 151 6
23 65 66 10 109 4 152 7
24 76 67 13 110 8 153 9
25 73 68 13 111 12 154 3
26 75 69 14 112 6 155 3
27 51 70 13 113 8 156 4
28 65 71 16 114 7 158 9
29 54 72 13 115 4 159 2
30 54 73 6 116 3 160 3
31 65 74 9 117 5 161 3
32 37 75 10 118 10 162 7
33 34 76 8 119 9 163 5
34 59 77 21 120 4 164 7
35 50 78 6 121 5 165 6
36 44 79 14 122 12 166 8
37 42 80 8 123 3 167 4
38 34 81 10 124 8 168 7
39 40 82 8 125 5 169 4
40 29 83 10 126 2 170 7
41 27 84 15 127 5 171 4
42 34 85 13 128 5 172 7
43 48 86 8 129 7 173 7

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Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata 30 th – 31st March 2010
Decay Time # 𝝁 decays Decay Time # 𝝁 decays Decay Time # 𝝁 decays Decay Time # 𝝁 decays
(100 ns) recorded (100 ns) recorded (100 ns) recorded (100 ns) recorded
174 5 195 4 215 5 237 3
175 6 196 9 216 6 238 4
176 10 197 6 217 5 239 8
177 5 198 3 218 4 240 10
178 8 199 4 220 4 241 2
179 4 200 2 221 5 242 5
180 7 201 2 222 5 243 3
181 8 202 9 223 5 244 6
182 4 203 6 224 3 245 4
183 4 204 4 226 3 246 3
184 4 205 10 227 4 247 5
185 10 206 2 228 4 248 4
186 4 207 8 229 5 249 4
187 5 208 8 230 11 250 7
188 5 209 4 231 4 251 5
189 6 210 7 232 3 252 3
190 2 211 2 233 3 253 3
191 9 212 7 234 2 254 4
192 4 213 7 235 4 255 2
193 5 214 6 236 2

The above obtained data was fitted using the following exponential model,
𝑡
𝑦 = 𝑎 exp − + 𝑏
𝜏
with three parameters 𝑎, 𝜏 and 𝑏 whose fitted values are,
𝑎 = 183.8, 𝜏 = 23.13, 𝑏 = 4.773

𝑡
𝑦 = 183.8 exp − + 4.773
23.13

𝑅 2 value = 0.9539

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Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata 30 th – 31st March 2010
Conclusions:
 The average lifetime of the muons in the rest frame was found to be 23.1 × 100 𝑛𝑠 or 2.31 × 10−6
sec.
 The average half life of the muons in the rest frame could also be found out by using the following,
𝑁0 𝑡1 2
= 𝑁0 exp −
2 𝜏
1 𝑡1 2
ln =−
2 𝜏
𝑡1 2 = 𝜏 ln 2
𝑡1 2 = 0.693 × 2.31 × 10−6 sec.
𝑡1 2 = 1.60 × 10−6 sec.

References:
 Nuclear Physics – By S. N. Ghoshal
 Supplied reading material and user’s manual.

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