Exploring the lifetime and cosmic frontier with the MATHUSLA detector

Abstract

The MATHUSLA detector to be installed on the surface above and somewhat displaced from the CMS interaction point (IP) will cover an area of $100\times 100$ m$^2$ containing many layers of scintillators planes to establish the space and time coordinates of charged particle tracks. This is an unprecedented detector in terms of size and continuous sensitivity over an area of $10^4$ m$^2$. This document describes the present MATHUSLA detector concept that is sensitive to both long-lived particles produced in the LHC collisions in CMS and cosmic ray extended air showers (EAS). The ability to improve significantly cosmic ray studies by adding a $10^4$ m$^2$ layer of RPCs that have both digital and analogue readout similar to the ARGO-YBJ experiment will be discussed with focus on large zenith angle EAS.