Hybrid portable low-cost and modular cosmic ray muon and neutron detector

Abstract

A state-of-the-art portable, low-cost, and modular cosmic ray muon and neutron detector prototype has been developed at Georgia State University for the simultaneous measurement of cosmic ray muon and neutron flux. The detector consists of three layers of plastic scintillator and a neutron-cell with liquid scintillator mounted on an extruded aluminum frame. The scintillation light is collected through embedded wavelength shifting fibers which are coupled to silicon photomultipliers (SiPM). The data acquisition (DAQ) system of this detector consists of a Raspberry PI and a custom-made 4-channel SiPM interface board. The interface board also has a built-in GPS, accelerometer, temperature, pressure, and humidity sensors. One of the applications of this detector is to study the correlation between the flux variations and the space/earth weather at global scale by installing arrays of this detector around the world. It could also be modified for extensive air shower measurements. In the talk, we will present the details of the detector design, the DAQ system and the initial test results from this detector.