Tests of a calorimetric technique for measuring the energy of cosmic ray muons in the TeV energy range

Previous energy measurements of cosmic ray muons have used magnetic spectrometers to measure the momentum of muons. Measurements using magnets fail for muons in the TeV range because at ultra-high muon energies, the measurement error in the angular deflection of muons by the spectrometer becomes comparable to the total angula deflection. A new method for measuring the energies of TeV muons is investigated, using a sample of cosmic ray muons accumulated parasitically (or synergistically) by the CCFR neutrino detector. The method infers the muon energy from measurements of the energy deposited by the muon in many layers of an iron-scintillator calorimeter. Muons in the TeV energy range lose energy stochastically through e+et - pai production. The distribution of muon energy loss is used t estimate the most likely muon energy. The analysis suggest that this new method for measuring cosmic ray muon energ may be applicable in future detectors such as MINOS an AMANDA.