The sea-level muon spectrum and charge ratio and their relationship with high-energy accelerator data

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Abstract
The sea-level muon spectrum and charge ratio have been calculated using the available high-energy accelerator data. The calculated muon spectrum is inconsistent with a primary nucleon spectrum of the form AE- gamma but is consistent with a spectrum of the form A(E- gamma 1+X0E- gamma 2). Consideration of the sea-level muon spectron and the primary iron spectrum suggests a primary nucleon spectrum 1.73 (E-2.70+or-0.05+1.35* 10-3*E-2.00+or-0.10)s-1 sr-1 cm-2 GeV-1. This spectrum is in better agreement with the observed muon charge ratio than a spectrum with a single exponent, but the predicted ratio is 7%in excess of the measured ratio at a sea-level momentum of 10 GeV/c, and this is attributed to a breakdown in the limiting fragmentation hypothesis or a difference in the charge distribution of secondaries between nucleon and nucleus targets. The predicted and observed variation of the ratio are in good agreement assuming that the spectrum of nuclei (Z approximately 26) cuts off in the region of 104GeV.