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From Cosmic Rays to Local Classrooms. How CORSIKA is Shaking Up. High School Physics. hjdh. Andrea Misner Astrophysics Student Member of “Team Butler” Supervisor: Dr. Malcolm Butler. Outline. High-Energy Particles and Air Showers. CORSIKA 6.203. Methods and Results.

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  1. From Cosmic Rays to Local Classrooms How CORSIKA is Shaking Up High School Physics hjdh Andrea Misner Astrophysics Student Member of “Team Butler” Supervisor: Dr. Malcolm Butler

  2. 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 Andrea Misner Saint Mary’s University 1

  3. Cosmic Rays • Cosmic Rays are ultra-high energy particles, consisting of mostly charged electrons and protons • The most energetic ones can move at 99.999999 % of the speed of light • Energies of Cosmic Rays can reach 1020 eV (~16J) • Energies of particle accelerators can reach 1012 eV (~10-7 J) Andrea Misner Saint Mary’s University 2

  4. 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 University 3

  5. Extensive Air Showers Andrea Misner Saint Mary’s University 4

  6. CORSIKA 6.203 (COsmic Ray SImulations for KAscade) • A Monte Carlo Code to Simulate Extensive Air Showers • Applies a random seed generator to vary the output data • 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 • Code Created by Dr. Heck, J. Knapp, J.N. Capdevielle, G. Schatz and T. Thouw at Karlsruhe, Germany Andrea Misner Saint Mary’s University 5

  7. Goals • Learn the physics of a cosmic ray air shower for ourselves • Create visual and graphical representations of the particles at the observation level • Produce semi-log plots with slopes that correspond to their energies Andrea Misner Saint Mary’s University 6

  8. Methods • Output the run_DAT0000## binary files • New corsikaread.f program and found the compressed muon data at the observation level of 11000 cm above sea level ÷ ÷ • Decoded the fort.8 files and learned the data structure Andrea Misner Saint Mary’s University 7

  9. Methods Continued… • 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107 and 1011 GeV runs with six runs per file • Modify and create new IDL and FORTRAN programs to further decode and plot the muon data Andrea Misner Saint Mary’s University 8

  10. Results Continued… 105 GeV 106 GeV 9

  11. 105 GeV 10

  12. Blank out 105 GeV Slope Equation: Y(x) = exp(P(0) + P(1)*X) 11

  13. 1x104 GeV P(1) = -5.165143e-02 + 9.440057e-03 Andrea Misner Saint Mary’s University 12

  14. 1x105 GeV P(1) = -8.936046e-02 + 3.020275e-03 Andrea Misner Saint Mary’s University 13

  15. 1x106 GeV P(1) = -1.227701e-01 + 1.376508e-03 Andrea Misner Saint Mary’s University 14

  16. 1x107 GeV P(1) = -1.693818e-01 + 6.967269e-04 Andrea Misner Saint Mary’s University 15

  17. Andrea Misner Saint Mary’s University 16

  18. 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 All around the world… • HISPARC (High School Project on Astrophysics Research with Cosmics) • NALTA (North America Large Area Time Coincidence Array) Andrea Misner Saint Mary’s University 17

  19. Cosmic Rays in the Classroom Program • Purpose: To engage high-school students in particle research • Local high schools would receive a Cosmic Ray detector and use a website as a guide • Online program worked into the student’s curriculum www.ap.smu.ca/cosmicray/ Andrea Misner Saint Mary’s University 18

  20. Educational Benefits • Students partake in the study of the most energetic particles ever seen • 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 19

  21. Future Endeavors • 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 • Probe deeper into CORSIKA 6.203 and cosmic ray physics, creating more visual representations of air showers Andrea Misner Saint Mary’s University 20

  22. Acknowledgments Supervisor: Dr. Malcolm Butler Team Members: Jesse Maclean ggIan McLeod and Nigel Ribeiro (Co-op students) the Andrea Misner Saint Mary’s University 21

  23. Thanks/Merci hjdh Where’s Your Classroom? Questions? Andrea Misner Saint Mary’s University 22

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