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From Cosmic Rays to Local Classrooms
How CORSIKA is Shaking Up
High School Physics
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Andrea Misner Astrophysics
Student Member of Team Butler Supervisor
Dr. Malcolm Butler
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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 Marys University
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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)

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Air Showers

• Air showers occur when a high energy particle
  strikes the top of the Earths atmosphere

• Interested in the particles that survive to the
  observation levelMuons!

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Extensive Air Showers
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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

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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

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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

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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

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Results Continued
105 GeV
106 GeV
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105 GeV
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Blank out
105 GeV
Slope Equation Y(x) exp(P(0) P(1)X)
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1x104 GeV
P(1) -5.165143e-02 9.440057e-03
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1x105 GeV
P(1) -8.936046e-02 3.020275e-03
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1x106 GeV
P(1) -1.227701e-01 1.376508e-03
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1x107 GeV
P(1) -1.693818e-01 6.967269e-04
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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)

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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 students
  curriculum

www.ap.smu.ca/cosmicray/
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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

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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

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Acknowledgments
Supervisor Dr. Malcolm Butler
Team Members Jesse Maclean
ggIan McLeod
and Nigel Ribeiro
(Co-op students)
the
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Thanks/Merci
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Wheres Your Classroom?
Questions?
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