Jack L. Uretsky

Study of cosmic ray composition in the knee region using multiple muon events in the Soudan 2 detector

Deep underground muon events recorded by the Soudan 2 detector, located at a depth of 2100 m of water equivalent, have been used to infer the nuclear composition of cosmic rays in the ``knee`` region of the cosmic ray energy spectrum. The observed muon multiplicity distribution favors a composition model with a substantial proton content in the energy region 8{times}10{sup 5}{endash}1.3{times}10{sup 7} GeV/nucleus. {copyright} {ital 1997} {ital The American Physical Society}

VACUUM ELECTRODYNAMICS ON A MERRY-GO-ROUND

Maxwells equations in a relativistic, rotating reference frame are discussed by use of a covariant formalism.

The observation of underground muons from the direction of Cygnus X-3 during the January 1991 radio flare

Abstract Muons recorded in the Soudan 2 underground nucleon decay detector from January 1989 to February 1991 have been examined for any correlation with the radio flares of Cygnus X-3 observed during this period. On two nearby days during the radio flare of January 1991 a total of 32 muons within 2.0° of the Cygnus X-3 direction were observed when 11.4 were expected.

Horizontal muons and a search for AGN neutrinos in Soudan 2.

We measure the horizontal (|cos({theta}{sub z})| 1.8 GeV) in Soudan 2 to be 4.01 {+-} 0.50 {+-} 0.30 x 10{sup -13} cm{sup -2} sr{sup -1} s{sup -1}. From the absence of horizontal muons with large energy loss, we set a limit on the flux of muon neutrinos from active galactic nuclei.

Redundancy of conditions for a Virasoro algebra

I show that the Fairlie, Nuyts, Zachos construction of Virasoro algebra contains redundant conditions.

Penetration of cosmic ray muons into the Earth

Abstract I present a new analytic solution to the integro-differential equation that describes the underground propagation of cosmic ray muons. The exact solution is given in the form of an infinite series in inverse powers of the muon energy. Convergence is proved for sufficiently high energies. The series is shown to be summable in closed form, in certain approximations. The closed forms provides analytic continuations to low energies of the series solution. One approximation resembles a well-known solution that ignores discrete energy loss, but this approximation introduces additional constants. I apply the approximate solution using an expression for the surface muon flux, derived from the primary flux, as a boundary condition. The result predicts the underground muon vertical intensity over seven orders of magnitude (10 km depth), compares favorably with published Monte Carlo calculations, and can be performed in seconds on a personal computer. As an application, the same approximation predicts the “catastrophic” energy-loss event rate at Soudan II.

Comment on “Phase transition-like behavior in a low-pass filter,” by H. Krivine and A. Lesne [Am. J. Phys. 71 (1), 31–33 (2003)]

This is a reminder that an infinite series can be defined other than as the limit of a sequence of finite series. An example is provided in which a circuit element comprised of an infinite series of resistors has negative resistance.

Do muons point to new physics

Your lucid news story reporting preliminary results from the beautiful Muon (g-2) experiment at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in the US (March p5) unfortunately obscures the significance of that experiment (H Brown et at. 2001 Phys. Rev. Lett. 86 2227). The experiment measures the magnetic moment of the muon with unprecedented precision.

The muon anomalous magnetic moment - significance of the new measurement.

Abstract Theoretical calculations of the hadronic contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment utilize experimental data from e + e − annihilation and tau decay. The data provide input to a dispersion relation. I contend that it is not possible to put error bounds on the dispersion-relation calculation absent proof—not presently available—that the amplitudes in question are polynomially bounded. Examples are provided.

Protheroe's statistic and continuous distributions

Abstract Protheroes statistic was originally presented as an algorithm, requiring extensive Monte Carlo calculations for estimation of critical values. I show that the statistic can be defined for continuous distributions. As a result, values of the statistic for uniform distributions and distributions with narrow peaks are easily calculated, as are critical values.