Fieldable muon spectrometer using multi-layer pressurized gas Cherenkov radiators and its applications

Junghyun Bae,Stylianos Chatzidakis

doi:10.1038/s41598-022-06510-2

Abstract

Cosmic ray muons have been considered as a non-conventional radiation probe in various applications. To utilize cosmic ray muons in engineering applications, two important quantities, trajectory and momentum, must be known. The muon trajectories are easily reconstructed using two-fold detector arrays with a high spatial resolution. However, precise measurement of muon momentum is difficult to be achieved without deploying large and expensive spectrometers such as solenoid magnets. Here, we propose a new method to estimate muon momentum using multi-layer pressurized gas Cherenkov radiators. This is accurate, portable, compact (< 1m3), and easily coupled with existing muon detectors without the need of neither bulky magnetic nor time-of-flight spectrometers. The results show that not only our new muon spectrometer can measure muon momentum with a resolution of ± 0.5 GeV/c in a momentum range of 0.1–10.0 GeV/c, but also we can reconstruct cosmic muon spectrum with high accuracy (~ 90%).

Highlights

Cosmic ray muons have been considered as a non-conventional radiation probe in various applications
The results show that our spectrometer can measure muon momentum with high accuracy (~ 90%) for a wide muon momentum range (0.1–10.0 GeV/c) and a resolution of ± 0.5 GeV/c which are sufficient for engineering applications
Since our proposed muon spectrometer relies on pressurized gas Cherenkov radiators, we can eliminate the need for bulky and expensive magnets to measure muon momentum

Summary

Introduction

Cosmic ray muons have been considered as a non-conventional radiation probe in various applications. We propose a new method to estimate muon momentum using multi-layer pressurized gas Cherenkov radiators This is accurate, portable, compact (< 1 m3), and coupled with existing muon detectors without the need of neither bulky magnetic nor time-of-flight spectrometers. Cosmic ray muons present a large part of background r adiation[1] and they have recently been explored as a non-conventional radiation probe for monitoring or imaging the contents of dense and large objects, otherwise not feasible with conventional radiographic techniques[2]. By measuring the Cherenkov signals in each radiator, we can estimate the actual muon momentum (Fig. 2) The benefit of such an approach is compact, lightweight, and portable spectrometer that can be deployed in the field to improve existing or explore new engineering applications: cosmic ray muon tomography, geological studies, and cosmic radiation measurement in the International Space Station. The results show that SNM monitoring and imaging capability can be significantly improved when we integrate muon momentum knowledge into the existing technologies

Methods

Results

Conclusion