Obtaining material identification with cosmic ray radiography

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a method for identifying materials by analyzing muon interactions, specifically energy loss and scattering, using data from the Mini Muon Tracker at Los Alamos.

Contribution

It introduces a technique for material identification based on muon radiography, utilizing both muon stopping and scattering data.

Findings

Successful material identification with muon data

Effective estimation of density and composition

Validation using experimental data from Los Alamos

Abstract

The passage of muons through matter is mostly affected by their Coulomb interactions with electrons and nuclei. The muon interactions with electrons lead to continuous energy loss and stopping of muons, while their scattering off nuclei lead to angular 'diffusion'. By measuring both the number of stopped muons and angular changes in muon trajectories we can estimate density and identify materials. Here we demonstrate the material identification using data taken at Los Alamos with the Mini Muon Tracker.