Speaker
Description
While cosmic-ray muography has become a proven tool for inspecting large-scale geological and industrial structures, such as nuclear reactor fuel, imaging small objects with low atomic numbers and low densities remains a significant challenge. Our research group has demonstrated a novel imaging method that addresses this limitation by detecting secondary radiation produced within the target material. By leveraging the production rate of these secondaries—detected in coincidence with muons using plastic scintillator detectors and a muon tracker—we have successfully produced the first cosmic-ray muon images of organic structures, specifically bone and soft tissue.
To refine this technique, we utilized Geant4 Monte-Carlo simulations to model muon interactions across various detector configurations and target materials, optimizing the experimental setups for image clarity. This paper presents a comparative analysis of two specific experimental setups: MUCA (Novi Sad) and COMIS (Budapest).
• MUCA (Muon Camera): Utilizes four 50 cm x 50 cm x 5 cm plastic scintillation detectors and a muon tracker consisting of five 25 cm x 25 cm Close Cathode Chamber (CCC) boards positioned above the target.
• COMIS (Cosmic Muon Induced Secondaries): Employs a tracker of five 50 cm x 50 cm CCC boards (2 mm resolution) below the target, supplemented by four 50 cm x 50 cm x 5 cm scintillators surrounding the object and four 25 cm x 25 cm x 5 cm scintillators beneath the target volume.
The primary objective of this research is to advance the imaging and composition analysis of low-Z, low-density materials using exclusively naturally occurring cosmic radiation. We provide a detailed comparison of the experimental results obtained from both setups, highlighting the efficacy of secondary particle detection in expanding the functional range of muography. By establishing a framework for imaging organic matter, this work paves the way for non-destructive material analysis.