A New Semi-Empirical Model for Cosmic Ray Muon Flux Estimation

Abstract

Cosmic ray muons have emerged as a non-conventional high-energy radiation probe to monitor dense and large objects. Muons are the most abundant cosmic radiation on Earth, however, their flux at sea level is approximately 10,000 min^-1m^-2 much less than that of induced radiation. In addition, cosmic ray muon flux depends on not only various natural conditions (e.g., zenith angle, altitude, or solar activities) but also the geometric characteristic of detectors. Since the low muon flux typically results in long measurement times, an accurate estimation of measurable muon counts is important for muon applications. Here we propose a simple and versatile semi-empirical model to improve the accuracy in muon flux estimation at all zenith angles by incorporating the geometric parameters of detectors, and we name this the Effective Solid Angle model. To demonstrate the functionality, our model is compared with i) the cosine-squared, ii) PARMA model, and iii) Monte-Carlo simulations, and iv) measurements. Our results show that the muon count rate estimation capability is significantly improved resulting in increasing a mean C/E from 0.7 to 0.95. By selecting an appropriate intensity correlation, the model can be easily extended to estimate muon flux at various altitude and underground level.