The data collected by the L3+C muon spectrometer at the CERN Large ElectronPositron collider, LEP, have been used to search for short duration signals emitted by cosmic point sources. A sky survey performed from July to November 1999 and from April to November 2000 has revealed one single flux enhancement (chance probability = 2.6·10) between the 17th and 20th of August 2000 from a direction with a galactic longitude of (265.02 ± 0.42) and latitude of (55.58 ± 0.24). The energy of the detected muons was above 15 GeV. Reference: Astroparticle Physics, 33 (2010 )24 − 39

The data collected by the L3+C muon spectrometer at the CERN Large Electron-Positron collider, LEP, have been used to search for short duration signals emitted by cosmic point sources. A sky survey performed from July to November 1999 and from April to November 2000 has revealed one single flux enhancement (chance probability = 2.6 x 10(-3)) between the 17th and 20th of August 2000 from a direction with a galactic longitude of (265.02 +/- 0.42)degrees and latitude of (55.58 +/- 0.24)degrees. The energy of the detected muons was above 15 GeV. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Context. Primary cosmic rays experience multiple deflections in the non-uniform galactic and heliospheric magnetic fields which may generate anisotropies.Aims. A study of anisotropies in the energy range between 100 and 500 GeV is performed. This energy range is not yet well explored.Methods. The L3 detector at the CERN electron-positron collider, LEP, is used for a study of the angular distribution of atmospheric muons with energies above 20 GeV. This distribution is used to investigate the isotropy of the time-dependent intensity of the primary cosmic-ray flux with a Fourier analysis.Results. A small deviation from isotropy at energies around 200 GeV is observed for the second harmonics at the solar frequency. No sidereal anisotropy is found at a level above 10(-4). The measurements were performed in the years 1999 and 2000.

Aims. Several experiments have reported observations on possible correlations between the flux of high energy muons and intense solar flares. If confirmed, these observations would have significant implications for acceleration processes in the heliosphere able to accelerate protons and other ions to energies of at least tens of GeV.Methods. The solar flare of the 14 of July 2000 offered a unique opportunity for the L3+C experiment to search for a correlated enhancement in the flux of muons using the L3 precision muon spectrometer. Its capabilities for observing a directional excess in the flux of muons above 15 GeV (corresponding to primary proton energies above 40 GeV) are presented along with observations made on the 14th of July 2000.Results. We report an excess which appeared at a time coincident with the peak increase of solar protons observed at lower energies. The probability that the excess is a background fluctuation is estimated to be 1%. No similar excess of the muon flux was observed up to 1.5 h after the solar flare time.

The L3+C muon detector at the CERN electron-positron collider, LEP, is used for the detection of very-high-energy cosmic gamma-ray sources through the observation of muons of energies above 20, 30, 50 and 100 GeV. Daily or monthly excesses in the rate of single-muon events pointing to some particular direction in the sky are searched for. The periods from mid July to November 1999, and April to November 2000 are considered. Special attention is also given to a selection of known gamma-ray sources. No statistically significant excess is observed for any direction or any particular source. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The shadowing of high-energy cosmic rays by the Moon has been observed with a significance of 9.4 standard deviations with the L3+C muon spectrometer at CERN. A significant effect of the Earth magnetic field is observed. Since no event deficit on the east side of the Moon has been observed, an upper limit at 90% confidence level on the antiproton to proton ratio of 0.11 is obtained for primary energies around 1TeV.

The L3 detector at the CERN electron–positron collider, LEP, has been employed for the study of cosmic ray muons. The muon spectrometer of L3 consists of a set of high-precision drift chambers installed inside a magnet with a volume of about 1000m3 and a field of 0.5T. Muon momenta are measured with a resolution of a few percent at 50GeV. The detector is located under 30m of overburden. A scintillator air shower array of 54m by 30m is installed on the roof of the surface hall above L3 in order to estimate the energy and the core position of the shower associated with a sample of detected muons. Thanks to the unique properties of the L3+C detector, muon research topics relevant to various current problems in cosmic ray and particle astrophysics can be studied.

The momentum and angular distributions of punchthrough muons have been measured after a 10 λ calorimeter using an iron toroid magnet with 1.5 T as spectrometer. The calorimeter was inside a variable magnetic field of 0 to 3 T. The incident momentum of the π− beam ranged from 20 to 300 GeV/c. Measurements were also done at some beam momenta for π+, K+ and p. The results are compared with Monte Carlo predictions. A parameterization for the momentum spectrum of punchthrough muons was derived from the data.

The total punchthrough probability of showers produced by negative pions, positive pions, positive kaons and protons, has been measured as a function of depth in an absorber in a magnetic field ranging from 0 to 3 Tesla.The incident particle momentum varied from 10 to 300 GeV/c.The lateral shower development and particle multiplicity at several absorber depths have been determined.The measurements are compared with the predictions of Monte Carlo simulation programs.

The experiments at the planned 14 TeV proton-proton collider LHC will need a good identification and measurement of muons with energies of up to about 800 GeV. The production of electromagnetic secondaries by muons of energy from 10 to 300 GeV has been measured at the RD5 experiment at CERN using various detector types proposed for LHC experiments. It is demonstrated that the detectors can recognize the presence of individual hits from em secondaries, and that the muon measurement would be seriously compromised if these hits are not suppressed.

Mass production technology for PPCs (Parallel Plate Chambers) is described. This technology provides a precise manufacture of chamber components and a high uniformity of chamber properties. Only radiation hard materials were used. Results on the chamber uniformity, the detection efficiency and the timing properties of PPCs are presented.