Cosmic ray physics with the ALICE detectors

Abstract

ALICE is an experiment devoted to heavy ion physics at LHC. The underground location of the apparatus with 30m of overburden can be exploited for studying cosmic rays through the muons reaching the experiment. ALICE setup includes a cosmic ray trigger system (ACORDE)

a large TPC designed to track a huge density of charged particles supported by a TRD and a TOF can be used for the detection of atmospheric muons. The TPC offers the opportunity to have magnetic analysis over a large volume which will provide a precise determination of the muon directions as well as their momenta up to order of TeV. The fine granularity permits the detection of a very high density of muon tracks. These. performances open new possibilities on the study of cosmic ray physics. In this paper we discuss some measurements that. can be performed with this apparatus such as muon momentum distribution, mu(+)/mu(-) ratio, multi-muon events, antiproton flux and the search for some exotic particles. An emphasis will be devoted to the study of muon bundles and to the potentiality of the magnetic analysis of these muons in disentangle among the different components of primary cosmic rays.