Measurement of large angle muon flux in GRAPES-3 experiment using triggerless DAQ system

Abstract

The large area muon telescope of GRAPES-3 has been operating continuously for more than two decades with a DAQ which has several limitations. At present, this DAQ is in the process of being upgraded with a FPGA based system. The new DAQ system is designed to be triggerless and capable of recording every hit from the 3712 proportional counters along with a time-stamp (10 ns resolution) which has significantly expanded the physics horizon of the experiment. This triggerless feature allows the detection of muons beyond the nominal zenith range of the current system (θ&lt

45◦). The upgraded DAQ system has been deployed for 25% of the telescope. An offline software trigger has been developed for the reconstruction of muon tracks by using the timing and pulse height information of each hit in the raw data. For the first time the muons are reconstructed in the entire zenith angle range. The extensive air showers (EAS) at large angles can be studied through the muon component. We present measurements of the flux of the large angle muons and their correlation with EAS triggers. © Copyright owned by the author(s).