JHU Advanced Physics Lab: Muon lifetime



In this experiment you have to measure lifetime of a muon (elementary particle similar to, but heavier than, electron).

The manual is here .

You have to start with the function generator and oscilloscope to characterize the amplifier's properties.

Then test your system with the pulser.

Then make sure you are collecting good data over a relatively short period of time (within class duration). Try saving the data and performing analysis of this small amount of data. This is to make sure you will be able to use data collected over extended period of time. And finally collect data over a long period (make your judgment what you need to do for a good measurement and justify in your report).

Your data analysis should be perfomed using raw data from this experiment, where you perform your own fit with a model which includes signal and background. Discuss your measurements, compare to expected muon lifetime in free space, and explain any differences in your measurements.

At some point you may need a password asked by the program, ask the instructor or the TA.

Prior notes on this experiment may be found here .


Andrei Gritsan
Last update: Tue Jan 26 13:56:11 EST 2010