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arXiv · 1008.1719

Observation in the MINOS far detector of the shadowing of cosmic rays by the sun and moon

The MINOS Collaboration
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Abstract

The shadowing of cosmic ray primaries by the the moon and sun was observed by the MINOS far detector at a depth of \unit[2070]{mwe} using 83.54 million cosmic ray muons accumulated over 1857.91 live-days. The shadow of the moon was detected at the \unit[5.6]{$σ$} level and the shadow of the sun at the \unit[3.8]{$σ$} level using a log-likelihood search in celestial coordinates. The moon shadow was used to quantify the absolute astrophysical pointing of the detector to be 0.17\pm 0.12^\circ. Hints of Interplanetary Magnetic Field effects were observed in both the sun and moon shadow.

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The MINOS Collaboration. 2010-08-10. Observation in the MINOS far detector of the shadowing of cosmic rays by the sun and moon. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.astropartphys.2010.10.010

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