Cosmic ray physics with the ALEPH detector

ALEPH is one of the four detectors at the Large Electron-Positron Collider (LEP) at a depth of about 320 m.w.e. Its hadron calorimeter and scintillato r arrays installed at distances up to about 1 km away from ALEPH are used t o measure cosmic muon induced time coincidences over large distances. The a im of this experiment (CosmoALEPH) is (I) to study the muon component above 70 GeV of Extensive Air Showers (EAS) and (2) to test the feasibility of s earching for time correlations over even larger distances (up to 8 km) betw een the four LEP detectors. Layout and first results of CosmoALEPH are pres ented demonstrating the potential for cosmic ray physics in the LEP tunnel. The multiplicity distribution of muons in cosmic events recorded in ALEPH' s tracking detector is presented. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.