Inelastic scattering of cosmic ray muons on iron nuclei and the virtual photon shadowing

Abstract

Hadronic cascade showers originating from inelastic interactions of cosmic ray muons with iron nuclei have been observed in a calorimeter located between two magnetic spectrometers. The separation of those events from the electromagnetic showers has been successfully done in the ranges of the transferred energy v ≳ 50 GeV and its ratio to muon energy v/E ≳ 0,1, by utilizing the difference of their longitudinal cascade developments. The comparison of the obtained μ‐Fe cross section with available μ‐, e‐ and σ‐proton data as well as μ‐, e‐ and σ‐nucleus data indicates that; At v ˜ 100 GeV, the virtual photon cross section on iron nucleus is almost the same as the real photon one, at least Q2 ≳ 0.1 GeV2/c2, and is about 70% of the cross section on proton times the atomic mass number of iron, i.e. the shadowing effect is clearly seen. Up to TeV region, this virtual photon cross section on iron does not increase significantly. contrary to the tendency of the real photon cross section on proton around 100 GeV. This suggests most likely that the shadowing still increases with energy at such high energies.