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hjdh Andrea Misner
Astrophysics Student
Member of “Team Butler”
Supervisor: Dr. Malcolm Butler
From Cosmic Rays to Local Classrooms
High School Physics
How CORSIKA is Shaking Up
Andrea Misner
Saint Mary’s University1
Outline
• High-Energy Particles and Air Showers
• CORSIKA 6.203
• Methods and Results
• An Educational Idea
• When Ideas become Reality: Cosmic Rays In The Classroom
• Educational Benefits
• Future Endeavors
Cosmic Rays
Andrea Misner
Saint Mary’s University2
• Cosmic Rays are ultra-high energy particles, consisting of mostly charged electrons and protons
• Energies of Cosmic Rays can reach 1020 eV (~16J)
• Energies of particle accelerators can reach 1012 eV (~10-7 J)
• The most energetic ones can move at 99.999999 % of the speed of light
Andrea Misner
Saint Mary’s University3
Air Showers
• Air showers occur when a high energy particle strikes the top of the Earth’s atmosphere
• Interested in the particles that survive to the observation level…Muons!
Andrea Misner
Saint Mary’s University4
Extensive Air Showers
Andrea Misner
Saint Mary’s University5
CORSIKA 6.203 (COsmic Ray SImulations for KAscade)
• A Monte Carlo Code to Simulate Extensive Air Showers
• Code Created by Dr. Heck, J. Knapp, J.N. Capdevielle, G. Schatz and T. Thouw at Karlsruhe, Germany
• Primary particles can be protons, light nuclei, and or photons in the code
• Particles are tracked through the atmosphere as they decay into unstable secondaries
•Applies a random seed generator to vary the output data
Goals
• Create visual and graphical representations of the particles at the observation level
Andrea Misner
Saint Mary’s University6
• Produce semi-log plots with slopes that correspond to their energies
• Learn the physics of a cosmic ray air shower for ourselves
7 Andrea Misner
Saint Mary’s University
Methods
• Output the run_DAT0000## binary files
• Decoded the fort.8 files and learned the data structure
• New corsikaread.f program and found the compressed muon data at the observation level of 11000 cm above sea level
8 Andrea Misner
Saint Mary’s University
Methods Continued…
• Modify and create new IDL and FORTRAN programs to further decode and plot the muon data
• 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107 and 1011 GeV runs with six runs per file
Results Continued…
105 GeV
106 GeV
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105 GeV
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Slope Equation: Y(x) = exp(P(0) + P(1)*X)
Blank out105 GeV
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12 Andrea Misner
Saint Mary’s University
P(1) = -5.165143e-02 + 9.440057e-03
1x104 GeV
13 Andrea Misner
Saint Mary’s University
P(1) = -8.936046e-02 + 3.020275e-03
1x105 GeV
14 Andrea Misner
Saint Mary’s University
P(1) = -1.227701e-01 + 1.376508e-03
1x106 GeV
15 Andrea Misner
Saint Mary’s University
1x107 GeV
P(1) = -1.693818e-01 + 6.967269e-04
16 Andrea Misner
Saint Mary’s University
An Educational Idea
• 1991 Dr. Pinfold created ALTA (Alberta Large Area Time coincidence Array) and linked it with High Schools
• High Schools are given a detector, and use a website as a guide
17 Andrea Misner
Saint Mary’s University
All around the world…
• HISPARC (High School Project on Astrophysics Research with Cosmics)
• NALTA (North America Large Area Time Coincidence Array)
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Cosmic Rays in the Classroom Program
Andrea Misner
Saint Mary’s University
• Online program worked into the student’s curriculum
• Local high schools would receive a Cosmic Ray detector and use a website as a guide
• Purpose: To engage high-school students in particle research
www.ap.smu.ca/cosmicray/
Educational Benefits
• Students partake in the study of the most energetic particles ever seen
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• Cost efficient for High Schools
- Detectors are low maintenance and compact
- Computers are in most classrooms today, making the online program easily accessible
• Students get a chance to learn some cutting-edge science
• Setup first school detector at Prince Andrew High School
• Continuing the networking with local high schools on the Imperial Oil Cosmic Rays in the Classroom Project
Andrea Misner
Saint Mary’s University20
Future Endeavors
• Probe deeper into CORSIKA 6.203 and cosmic ray physics, creating more visual representations of air showers
Supervisor: Dr. Malcolm Butler
21 Andrea Misner
Saint Mary’s University
the
Team Members: Jesse Maclean ggIan McLeod and Nigel Ribeiro (Co-op students)
Andrea Misner
Saint Mary’s University22Questions?
hjdhWhere’s Your Classroom?