Electromagnetic interactions of cosmic ray muons in iron. I. Search for a charge asymmetry

Abstract

A search for a charge asymmetry in the interactions of cosmic ray muons in iron has been made using the Durham spectrograph MARS. The measurements cover the range of muon energy 6-200 GeV and refer to interaction secondaries varying in number from one to about 20. The ratio of the interaction probability for positive muons to that for negative muons is 1.08+or-0.06 for interactions having two or more secondaries. This value is less than that found in some previous experiments and does not give support to the existence of a charge asymmetry.