The MURAVES muon telescope: technology and expected performances

Abstract

The MURAVES project aims to study the

Atmospheric muons as an imaging tool

“…Vesuvius' first 2D muographic images were produced by the MU-RAY project [36] using three x − y layers of scintillator bars. To reduce backgrounds, the MURAVES project [32,37], MU-RAY's successor, added a fourth layer and a 60 cm lead absorber between the third and fourth layer, complemented by time-of-flight (TOF) measurement (see Sec. 6.1).…”

“…As a third example, Fig.5 (bottom) shows a configuration of bars with a right-angled triangular section. This solution, first adopted at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (USA), has been used for the MU-RAY [81], MURAVES [37] and MIMA [82] muography detectors. In this case, incident particles always cross two adjacent bars and the reconstruction of the particle impact coordinate takes advantage of the different amplitudes of signals produced in the two bars, roughly proportional to the track length in each scintillator.…”

Muon Radiography of Ancient Mines: The San Silvestro Archaeo-Mining Park (Campiglia Marittima, Tuscany)

“…In 1970, the Nobelist Louis Alvarez and his collaborators performed a radiographic measurement of the Chephren Pyramid in Egypt and they were able to exclude the existence of a hidden burial chamber [3]. Following these pioneering measurements, more recently muon absorption radiography was taken again into consideration, at first by Japanese groups [4] and later by Italian, French, Canadian, American, and other groups ( [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13], to name a few) for application in the fields of volcanology, archaeology, and mining. The MURAVES project (MUon RAdiography of VESuvius) [14], born of the collaboration between INGV (National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology) and INFN (National Institute of Nuclear Physics), aims to study the interior of Mount Vesuvius near Naples using muon radiography.…”

Muon Radiography of Ancient Mines: the San Silvestro Archaeo-Mining Park (Campiglia Marittima, Tuscany)

“…After these pioneering measurements recently muon absorption radiography was again taken into consideration, at first by Japanese groups [4] and later by Italian, French, Canadian, American and other groups (e.g. [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]), to be applied in the fields of Volcanology, Mining and Archaeology. The MURAVES project (MUon RAdiography of VESuvius) [14], born from the collaboration between INGV (National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology) and INFN (National Institute of Nuclear Physics), aims at the study of the interior of the Vesuvius volcano near Naples using muon radiography.…”