Determining the muon mass using a scintillator-based detector

A scintillator-based detection system, of the type employed in the popular muon-lifetime instructional lab experiment, is used to measure the muon mass. The photomultiplier pulse pairs produced by the decay of cosmic ray muons into product electrons and positrons within the scintillator are detected by a digitizing oscilloscope and the energies of the product particles are quantified by integrating the area under their associated pulses. The observed distribution of product-particle energies is then compared with Monte Carlo simulated distributions assuming different values of the muon mass mμc2, where the modeling of product-particle energy loss within the scintillator accounts for collisional and radiative effects in a detailed way. Via a least-squares comparison, it is found that the simulated distribution based on a value of mμc2=105±5 MeV most closely matches the experimental distribution.