Calibration and monitoring of water Cherenkov detectors with stopping and crossing muons

The Auger Observatory water Cherenkov detectors (WCD) will require that the initial calibration and subsequent monitoring of each of the WCDs be done in a remote way. We present a method to perform these tasks based on the detection of muons decaying inside the detectors and the application of adequate selection cuts. This technique may be complemented with another based on muons crossing the WCDs, Samples of decaying and crossing muon events were obtained with a WCD prototype to demonstrate the viability of the techniques. Three clear peaks of PMT charge distributions were identified. All of them are useful for calibration and monitoring of WCDs: one for stopping muons, one for decay electrons and one for crossing muons. The mean value of the peak found in the decay-electron charge distribution is 0.18 times the corresponding value for vertically crossing muons; likewise, the mean value of the peak in the charge distribution of crossing muons (excluding corner clipping muons) is 6.1 times the value for decay electrons in a tank of our dimensions; finally, the mean value of the peak in the charge distribution of stopping muons is 0.55 times the value for decay electrons. The techniques described can be applied equally well to unsegmented or segmented Auger tanks as each of the three PMTs of an Auger WCD can be self-triggered independently. The experimental data are well reproduced by numerical simulations. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.