The Effect of Grazing Incidence on the Channeling of Muons
Muons are particles that come into interaction with Earth when cosmic rays shatter in the atmosphere. These particles can be used in place of electrons in atom structures to achieve nuclear fusion, fusion of multiple nuclei, at room temperature. The purpose of this investigation was to devise a method to collect these small, high speed particles to utilize their unique fusing properties to create a new power source. The method being tested to collect muons was based off grazing incidence used in X-ray telescopes. This is where the particles hit the surface, in this case lead, of a cone like shape at a fine angle and deflect into the desired area. For this experiment, muon detectors were placed at the base of the lead funnel to track the number of muons that pass through them per hour. A similar set of trials were conducted without the lead funnel as a control set. The results from these trials were analyzed using both descriptive statistics and a two-sample t-test. The results from the descriptive statistics revealed that using grazing incidence, in the context used in this experiment, was not an effective method to channel muons and may have even blocked muons. After further observations and a two-sample t-test, this assumption was validated.
Research Conducted By:
Nathan Frazier
Cousino High School
Joshua Tran
Warren Mott High School
Warren Consolidated Schools