Search for shadowing of primary cosmic radiation by the moon at TeV energies

The antimatter research through the earth moon ion spectrometer (ARTEMIS) experiment is described in terms of searching for the moon's shadow in the primary cosmic radiation at TeV energies. Observations were made using the Whipple 10 m Imaging Atmospheric ?erenkov Telescope, in conjunction with a special optical filter to suppress unwanted moonlight. Monte Carlo simulations were used to predict that the magnitude of shadowing based on a pure proton beam would be 1% of the cosmic ray background. Observations and event classification are discussed, and results of a search for shadowing based on both protons and antiprotons are presented. Atmospheric fluctuations giving rise to non-statistical event rates constituted a limiting factor to the sensitivity of the shadow search as they rivaled or exceeded statistical errors. It is demonstrated that the experiment does not have sufficient sensitivity to moon shadowing which would allow a search for an antimatter component in the primary cosmic ray flux at the percent level. Possible future improvements of the technique are discussed. © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V.