Electromagnetic Interactions of High-Energy Cosmic-Ray Muons

Abstract

The electromagnetic interactions of cosmic-ray muons in the energy range up to 1 TeV were investigated with a spark-chamber calorimeter in combination with the Kiel spectrograph. The purpose was to investigate the different kinds of electromagnetic processes (knock-on, direct-pair, bremsstrahlung, and multiple pion production) in the range of energy transfer from 0.2 to 100 GeV. The production of pions is in reasonable agreement with the theoretical prediction of Daiyasu et al. In the region of high energy transfer (>2 Gev) the experimental results agree with Bhabha's theory of the knock-on process as well as with Murota's theory of direct pair production. However, in the region of energy transfer around 1 GeV there are minor deviations from these theories, in contradiction with accelerator data.