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Keywords = cosmic-ray tomography

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20 pages, 1548 KiB  
Article
Optimisation of Muon Tomography Scanners for Border Control Using TomOpt
by Zahraa Zaher, Samuel Alvarez, Tommaso Dorigo, Andrea Giammanco, Maxime Lagrange, Giles C. Strong, Pietro Vischia and Haitham Zaraket
Particles 2025, 8(2), 53; https://doi.org/10.3390/particles8020053 - 1 May 2025
Viewed by 1354
Abstract
The TomOpt software package is designed to optimise the geometric configuration and the specifications of detectors intended for muon scattering tomography, an imaging technique exploiting cosmic-ray muons. The software employs an end-to-end differentiable pipeline that models the interactions of muons with detectors and [...] Read more.
The TomOpt software package is designed to optimise the geometric configuration and the specifications of detectors intended for muon scattering tomography, an imaging technique exploiting cosmic-ray muons. The software employs an end-to-end differentiable pipeline that models the interactions of muons with detectors and scanned volumes, infers properties of the scanned materials, and performs an optimisation cycle minimising a user-defined loss function. This article presents the implementation of a case study related to cargo scanning applications in the context of homeland security. Full article
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20 pages, 2061 KiB  
Article
Scattering-Based Machine Learning Algorithms for Momentum Estimation in Muon Tomography
by Florian Bury and Maxime Lagrange
Particles 2025, 8(2), 43; https://doi.org/10.3390/particles8020043 - 14 Apr 2025
Viewed by 1098
Abstract
Muon tomography leverages the small, continuous flux of cosmic rays produced in the upper atmosphere to measure the density of unknown volumes. The multiple Coulomb scattering that muons undergo when passing through the material can either be leveraged or represent a measurement nuisance. [...] Read more.
Muon tomography leverages the small, continuous flux of cosmic rays produced in the upper atmosphere to measure the density of unknown volumes. The multiple Coulomb scattering that muons undergo when passing through the material can either be leveraged or represent a measurement nuisance. In either case, the scattering dependence on muon momentum is a significant source of imprecision. This can be alleviated by including dedicated momentum measurement devices in the experiment, which have a potential cost and can interfere with measurement. An alternative consists of leveraging information on scattering withstood through a known medium. We present a comprehensive study of diverse machine-learning algorithms for this regression task, from classical feature engineering with a fully connected network to more advanced architectures such as recurrent and graph neural networks and transformers. Several real-life requirements are considered, such as the inclusion of hit reconstruction efficiency and resolution and the need for a momentum resolution prediction that can improve reconstruction methods. Full article
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11 pages, 1292 KiB  
Article
Design and Simulation of a Muon Detector Using Wavelength-Shifting Fiber Readouts for Border Security
by Anzori Sh. Georgadze
Instruments 2025, 9(1), 1; https://doi.org/10.3390/instruments9010001 - 27 Jan 2025
Viewed by 2093
Abstract
Cosmic ray muon tomography is a promising method for the non-invasive inspection of shipping containers and trucks. It leverages the highly penetrating cosmic muons and their interactions with various materials to generate three-dimensional images of large and dense objects, such as inter-modal shipping [...] Read more.
Cosmic ray muon tomography is a promising method for the non-invasive inspection of shipping containers and trucks. It leverages the highly penetrating cosmic muons and their interactions with various materials to generate three-dimensional images of large and dense objects, such as inter-modal shipping containers, which are typically opaque to conventional X-ray radiography techniques. One of the key tasks of customs and border security is verifying shipping container declarations to prevent illegal trafficking, and muon tomography offers a viable solution for this purpose. Common imaging methods using muons rely on data analysis of either muon scattering or absorption–transmission. We design a compact muon tomography system with dimensions of 3 × 3 × 3 m3, consisting of 2D position-sensitive detectors. These detectors include plastic scintillators, wavelength-shifting (WLS) fibers, and SiPMs. Through light transport modeling with GEANT4, we demonstrate that the proposed detector design—featuring 1 m × 1 m scintillator plates with 2 mm2 square-shaped WLS fibers—can achieve a spatial resolution of approximately 0.7–1.0 mm. Through Monte Carlo simulations, we demonstrate that combining muon scattering and absorption data enables the rapid and accurate identification of cargo materials. In a smuggling scenario where tobacco is falsely declared as paper towel rolls, this combined analysis distinguishes the two with 3 σ confidence at a spatial resolution of 1 mm (FWHM) for the muon detector, achieving results within a scanning time of 40 s for a 20-foot shipping container. Full article
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36 pages, 4043 KiB  
Review
Cosmic-Ray Tomography for Border Security
by Sarah Barnes, Anzori Georgadze, Andrea Giammanco, Madis Kiisk, Vitaly A. Kudryavtsev, Maxime Lagrange and Olin Lyod Pinto
Instruments 2023, 7(1), 13; https://doi.org/10.3390/instruments7010013 - 20 Mar 2023
Cited by 23 | Viewed by 10987
Abstract
A key task for customs workers is the interception of hazardous, illegal and counterfeit items in order to protect the health and safety of citizens. However, it is estimated that only a small fraction of cargo is inspected and an even smaller fraction [...] Read more.
A key task for customs workers is the interception of hazardous, illegal and counterfeit items in order to protect the health and safety of citizens. However, it is estimated that only a small fraction of cargo is inspected and an even smaller fraction of trafficked goods are detected. Today, the most widely used technology for scanning vehicles, ranging from vans and trucks to railcars, is γ ray and X-ray radiography. New technologies are required to overcome current technological shortcomings, such as the inability to detect the target material composition, the usage of harmful ionising radiation sources and the resultant low throughput. Cosmic ray tomography (CRT) is a promising technology for cargo screening. Cosmic ray muons have average energies of around 10,000 times larger than a typical X-ray and therefore can penetrate relatively large and dense materials. By analysing muon scattering, it is possible to identify materials hidden inside shielding that is too thick or deep for other imaging methods. CRT is also completely passive, exploiting naturally occurring secondary cosmic radiation, and is therefore safe for humans and animals. Contrary to conventional X-ray- or γ-ray-based imaging techniques, CRT also allows material differentiation and anomaly localisation within the cargo or vehicle through the provision of 3D images. This article reviews the current state-of-the-art technology in CRT, critically assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the method, and suggesting further directions for development. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Muography, Applications in Cosmic-Ray Muon Imaging)
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11 pages, 843 KiB  
Article
A Comparison of Neural Networks and Center of Gravity in Muon Hit Position Estimation
by Kadir Aktas, Madis Kiisk, Andrea Giammanco, Gholamreza Anbarjafari and Märt Mägi
Entropy 2022, 24(11), 1659; https://doi.org/10.3390/e24111659 - 15 Nov 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2076
Abstract
The performance of cosmic-ray tomography systems is largely determined by their tracking accuracy. With conventional scintillation detector technology, good precision can be achieved with a small pitch between the elements of the detector array. Improving the resolution implies increasing the number of read-out [...] Read more.
The performance of cosmic-ray tomography systems is largely determined by their tracking accuracy. With conventional scintillation detector technology, good precision can be achieved with a small pitch between the elements of the detector array. Improving the resolution implies increasing the number of read-out channels, which in turn increases the complexity and cost of the tracking detectors. As an alternative to that, a scintillation plate detector coupled with multiple silicon photomultipliers could be used as a technically simple solution. In this paper, we present a comparison between two deep-learning-based methods and a conventional Center of Gravity (CoG) algorithm, used to calculate cosmic-ray muon hit positions on the plate detector using the signals from the photomultipliers. In this study, we generated a dataset of muon hits on a detector plate using the Monte Carlo simulation toolkit GEANT4. We demonstrate that two deep-learning-based methods outperform the conventional CoG algorithm by a significant margin. Our proposed algorithm, Fully Connected Network, produces a 0.72 mm average error measured in Euclidean distance between the actual and predicted hit coordinates, showing great improvement in comparison with CoG, which yields 1.41 mm on the same dataset. Additionally, we investigated the effects of different sensor configurations on performance. Full article
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14 pages, 6899 KiB  
Article
Mountain Muon Tomography Using a Liquid Scintillator Detector
by Bin Zhang, Zhe Wang and Shaomin Chen
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(21), 10975; https://doi.org/10.3390/app122110975 - 29 Oct 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2560
Abstract
Muon tomography (MT), based on atmospheric cosmic rays, is a promising technique suitable for nondestructive imaging of the internal structures of mountains. This method uses the measured flux distribution after attenuation, combined with the known muon angular and energy distributions and a 3D [...] Read more.
Muon tomography (MT), based on atmospheric cosmic rays, is a promising technique suitable for nondestructive imaging of the internal structures of mountains. This method uses the measured flux distribution after attenuation, combined with the known muon angular and energy distributions and a 3D satellite map, to perform tomographic imaging of the density distribution inside a probed volume. A muon tomography station (MTS) requires direction-sensitive detectors with a high resolution for optimal tracking of incident cosmic-ray muons. The spherical liquid scintillator detector is one of the best candidates for this application due to its uniform detection efficiency for the whole 4π solid angle and its excellent ability to distinguish muon signals from the radioactive background via the difference in the energy deposit. This type of detector, with a 1.3 m diameter, was used in the Jinping Neutrino Experiment (JNE). Its angular resolution is 4.9 degrees. Following the application of imaging for structures of Jinping Mountain with JNE published results based on the detector, we apply it to geological prospecting. For mountains below 1 km in height and 2.8 g/cm3 in the reference rock, we demonstrate that this kind of detector can image internal regions with densities of ≤2.1 g/cm3 or ≥3.5 g/cm3 and hundreds of meters in size. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Applied Physics General)
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23 pages, 44483 KiB  
Article
Analysis of Secondary Particles as a Complement to Muon Scattering Measurements
by Maximilian Pérez Prada, Sarah Barnes and Maurice Stephan
Instruments 2022, 6(4), 66; https://doi.org/10.3390/instruments6040066 - 18 Oct 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3029
Abstract
Cosmic ray tomography is an emerging imaging technique utilizing an ambient source of radiation. One common tomography method is based on the measurement of muons scattered by the examined objects, which allows the reconstruction and discrimination of materials with different properties. From the [...] Read more.
Cosmic ray tomography is an emerging imaging technique utilizing an ambient source of radiation. One common tomography method is based on the measurement of muons scattered by the examined objects, which allows the reconstruction and discrimination of materials with different properties. From the interaction of air shower particles induced through cosmic rays with the material to be scanned, secondary particles, predominantly photons, neutrons and electrons, can be produced, which carry complementary information about the objects and their materials. However, this information is currently not fully exploited or only studied in coincidence with the incoming air shower particles. Therefore, this work presents a novel approach utilizing only the information from secondary particles to reconstruct and discriminate objects made out of a variety of materials. It also includes a detailed analysis of the kinematics of secondary particles and their dependency on material characteristics. In addition, a reconstruction algorithm to produce 3D maps of the examined volume from the measurement of secondary particles is introduced. This results in a successful reconstruction and differentiation of objects in various geometrical compositions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Muography, Applications in Cosmic-Ray Muon Imaging)
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8 pages, 509 KiB  
Article
DOME: Discrete Oriented Muon Emission in GEANT4 Simulations
by Ahmet Ilker Topuz, Madis Kiisk and Andrea Giammanco
Instruments 2022, 6(3), 42; https://doi.org/10.3390/instruments6030042 - 15 Sep 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3513 | Correction
Abstract
The simulation of muon tomography requires a multi-directional particle source that traverses a number of horizontal detectors of limited angular acceptance that are used to track cosmic-ray muons. In this study, we describe a simple strategy that can use GEANT4 simulations to produce [...] Read more.
The simulation of muon tomography requires a multi-directional particle source that traverses a number of horizontal detectors of limited angular acceptance that are used to track cosmic-ray muons. In this study, we describe a simple strategy that can use GEANT4 simulations to produce a hemispherical particle source. We initially generate random points on a spherical surface of practical radius by using a Gaussian distribution for the three components of the Cartesian coordinates, thereby obtaining a generating surface for the initial position of the particles to be tracked. Since we do not require the bottom half of the sphere, we take the absolute value of the vertical coordinate, resulting in a hemisphere. Next, we direct the generated particles into the target body by selectively favoring the momentum direction along the vector constructed between a random point on the hemispherical surface and the origin of the target, thereby minimizing particle loss through source biasing. We also discuss a second scheme where the coordinate transformation is performed between the spherical and Cartesian coordinates, and the above-source biasing procedure is applied to orient the generated muons towards the target. Finally, a recipe based on restrictive planes from our previous study is discussed. We implement our strategies by using G4ParticleGun in the GEANT4 code. While we apply these techniques to simulations for muon tomography via scattering, these source schemes can be applied to similar studies for atmospheric sciences, space engineering, and astrophysics where a 3D particle source is a necessity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Muography, Applications in Cosmic-Ray Muon Imaging)
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14 pages, 2689 KiB  
Article
Momentum-Dependent Cosmic Ray Muon Computed Tomography Using a Fieldable Muon Spectrometer
by Junghyun Bae and Stylianos Chatzidakis
Energies 2022, 15(7), 2666; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15072666 - 5 Apr 2022
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3787
Abstract
Cosmic ray muon tomography has been recently explored as a non-destructive technique for monitoring or imaging dense well-shielded objects, classically not achievable with traditional tomographic methods. As a recent example of technology transition from high-energy physics to real-world engineering applications, cosmic ray muon [...] Read more.
Cosmic ray muon tomography has been recently explored as a non-destructive technique for monitoring or imaging dense well-shielded objects, classically not achievable with traditional tomographic methods. As a recent example of technology transition from high-energy physics to real-world engineering applications, cosmic ray muon tomography has been used with various levels of success in nuclear nonproliferation. However, present muon detection systems have no momentum measurement capabilities and recently developed muon-based radiographic techniques rely only on muon tracking. This unavoidably reduces resolution and requires longer measurement times thus limiting the widespread use of cosmic ray muon tomography. Measurement of cosmic ray muon momenta has the potential to significantly improve the efficiency and resolution of cosmic ray muon tomography. In this paper, we propose and explore the use of momentum-dependent cosmic ray muon tomography using multi-layer gas Cherenkov radiators, a new concept for measuring muon momentum in the field. The muon momentum measurements are coupled with a momentum-dependent imaging algorithm (mPoCA) and image reconstructions are presented to demonstrate the benefits of measuring momentum in cosmic ray muon tomography. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Latest Advances in Nuclear Energy Systems)
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10 pages, 3536 KiB  
Article
A Compact Muon Tracker for Dynamic Tomography of Density Based on a Thin Time Projection Chamber with Micromegas Readout
by Ignacio Lázaro Roche
Particles 2021, 4(3), 333-342; https://doi.org/10.3390/particles4030028 - 1 Jul 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 4191
Abstract
Tomography based on cosmic muon absorption is a rising technique because of its versatility and its consolidation as a geophysics tool over the past decade. It allows us to address major societal issues such as long-term stability of natural and man-made large infrastructures [...] Read more.
Tomography based on cosmic muon absorption is a rising technique because of its versatility and its consolidation as a geophysics tool over the past decade. It allows us to address major societal issues such as long-term stability of natural and man-made large infrastructures or sustainable underwater management. Traditionally, muon trackers consist of hodoscopes or multilayer detectors. For applications with challenging available volumes or the wide field of view required, a thin time projection chamber (TPC) associated with a Micromegas readout plane can provide a good tradeoff between compactness and performance. This paper details the design of such a TPC aiming at maximizing primary signal and minimizing track reconstruction artifacts. The results of the measurements performed during a case study addressing the aforementioned applications are discussed. The current works lines and perspectives of the project are also presented. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from "New Horizons in Time Projection Chambers")
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8 pages, 1775 KiB  
Article
Faraday Tomography of the SS433 Jet Termination Region
by Haruka Sakemi, Mami Machida, Takumi Ohmura, Shinsuke Ideguchi, Yoshimitsu Miyashita, Keitaro Takahashi, Takuya Akahori, Hiroki Akamatsu, Hiroyuki Nakanishi, Kohei Kurahara and Jamie Farnes
Galaxies 2018, 6(4), 137; https://doi.org/10.3390/galaxies6040137 - 9 Dec 2018
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3888
Abstract
A jet termination region provides us with useful information about how a jet interacts with the interstellar medium. Identifying the strength and orientation of magnetic fields at the terminal is crucially important to understanding the mechanism of cosmic-ray acceleration. In this article, we [...] Read more.
A jet termination region provides us with useful information about how a jet interacts with the interstellar medium. Identifying the strength and orientation of magnetic fields at the terminal is crucially important to understanding the mechanism of cosmic-ray acceleration. In this article, we report results of our Faraday-tomography analysis of the eastern region of the radio nebula W50, where a jet from the microquasar SS433 seems to terminate. We apply QU-fitting, a method of Faraday-tomography, to data from the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) at 1.3–3.0 GHz. In the analysis, we distinguish multiple polarized sources along the line of sight. We identify Galactic emission candidates at Faraday depths around 0 rad m−2 and 300 rad m−2. The Galactic emission around 0 rad m−2 is possibly located in front of W50. We also find emission from W50 with Faraday depths between φ = −112 to 228 rad m−2. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Power of Faraday Tomography)
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