Thursday,+September+20th+2012

Today I arrived at the Quarknet research facility and labs at 3:30. I went into the lab area to begin reading about Cosmic Rays and Muons, and how they are affected when they travel through the CMS detector. Cosmic Rays are high energy particles that flow into our atmosphere from a far away solar system in our galaxy. It is almost impossible to detect where the cosmic ray originated from because of the speed of the particle, and how out atmosphere and magnetic fields have affected the trajectory of the particle. Cosmic Rays are probably particles that come from supernovas in other areas of the galaxy, and are then bounced off of the gas particles in space until the speed is too fast and then the particle will shoot out into space. Cosmic Rays can also be found at much higher speeds than can be calculated to the power of a supernova, so scientists theorize that the rays may come from other galaxies and may have interacted with neutrinos or gamma ray bursts, making them much faster. Dr. L mentioned that Cosmic Rays travel so fast, and so randomly that the average Cosmic Ray has traveled across the galaxy at least 50 times. Later I looked at the CMS 3D Event Display, selecting different data inputs and trying to locate the muons in the particle displays. In the first photo, the muons are traveling in two opposite directions, but both look to be going opposite linear directions, but when you look at the second picture you can tell that they are in fact moving forward instead of in a single linear function, as well as with the third picture. In order to properly identify the direction of the muon you must have as many viewpoints as possible, which is what using the CMS 3D Event Display is best used for. After I looked at multiple CMS detector readings, it was time for me to leave Quarknet, which was at around 3:30.