We are creating a new and innovative undergraduate laboratory in high-energy physics, based on a study of catastrophic energy loss by muons which was done at Fermilab and published this year in Physical Review D. In the Fermilab experiment, the energy deposition spectrum of cosmic rays was studied using an iron/scintillator calorimeter. The undergraduate laboratory version is being constructed of lead and scintillator. Although typical cosmic-ray muons deposit very little energy, one in 10,000 muons undergo a catastrophic energy loss and create a high-energy electromagnetic shower within the detector. Students not only study the electromagnetic showers themselves but also use the highest energy showers to estimate the cosmic ray spectrum. The apparatus is small enough to fit on a lab bench, yet exposes the student to state-of-the-art techniques for calorimetry and data acquisition which are used in present-day particle-physics experiments.
