Exploring Signatures of Different Physical Processes for Fusion With Scattering Muon Tomography

Abstract

The success of scattering muon tomography has prompted us to explore cosmic ray flux attenuation, electro-magnetic shower induction, and muonic X-ray emission as additional means for the non-destructive assay of small and medium size objects. We report on the value of the signatures of these processes as an adjunct to multiple scattering muon tomography. We discuss our experiments and the Monte-Carlo calculations of these processes, the type of information that can be drawn from their signatures, the cost and the value of this information. We discuss the general requirements for detector systems to make use of cosmic ray flux attenuation, induction of electro-magnetic showers, and muonic X-rays in muon tomography. We find that the attenuation of the cosmic ray flux allows for the inference of the density distribution for objects of automobile size and smaller with exposure times of order a few minutes. Our preliminary experiments and calculations have shown that using muonic X-rays to identify composition is exceedingly difficult, requiring months of exposure. Our experiments are not yet sensitive enough to detect muonic x-rays at the rates expected from previous accelerator experiments