Muon flux measurement at China Jinping Underground Laboratory

China Jinping Underground Laboratory (CJPL) is ideal for studying solar, geo-, and supernova neutrinos. A precise measurement of the cosmic-ray background is essential in proceeding with R&D research for these MeV-scale neutrino experiments. Using a 1-ton prototype detector for the Jinping Neutrino Experiment (JNE), we detected 264 high-energy muon events from a 645.2-day dataset from the first phase of CJPL (CJPL-I), reconstructed their directions, and measured the cosmic-ray muon flux to be (3.53 +/- 0.22(stat.) +/- 0.07(sys.)) x 10(-10) cm(-2)s(-1). The observed angular distributions indicate the leakage of cosmic-ray muon background and agree with simulation data accounting for Jinping mountain's terrain. A survey of muon fluxes at different laboratory locations, considering both those situated under mountains and those down mine shafts, indicates that the flux at the former is generally a factor of (4 +/- 2) larger than at the latter, with the same vertical overburden. This study provides a convenient back-of-the-envelope estimation for the muon flux of an underground experiment.

Automated summary

China Jinping Underground Laboratory (CJPL) is ideal for studying solar, geo-, and supernova neutrinos, and precise measurement of cosmic-ray background is crucial for neutrino experiments. A study using a 1-ton prototype detector at CJPL detected high-energy muon events, providing a convenient estimation for the muon flux of an underground experiment. The study compared muon fluxes at different laboratory locations and found that flux at locations under mountains is generally larger than at those down mine shafts.