Cosmic ray muons in the deep ocean

Abstract

This work presents three results in the area of non accelerator particle physics. The first topic details deep ocean background light studies and results from the first oceangoing muon tracking telescope capable of operation at ocean depths of 4000 meters. The experiment achieved an average effective area of 322 m^2, and a measurement of the vertical muon intensity at 5 depths from 2000 to 4000 meters was made. The second work describes technique and results from the world's first monopole catalysis experiment. We place a 90% confidence level upper limit to the monopole flux, F < 3.0 x 10^-12 cm^-2 s^-l sr^-1 for interaction lengths less than 50 cm. The limit is valid over the range of monopole velocities, 5 x 10^-4 < β < .05. The third work discusses the implications for a limit on the Grand Unification scale which may be derived from an astronomical observation of a possible cosmic string. For string velocities transverse to the line of sight and < .99c I derive an experimental bound on the symmetry breaking scale for string formation of, 2.3 x 10^15 < Estr(GeV) < 1.3 x 10^17.