Development of stroboscopic muography

Abstract

Conventional muon radiography has concentrated on non-destructive studies of stationary objects with relatively long exposure times required to achieve sufficient muon statistics. A muon detection system with real time readings and a high spatial resolution detector, enables the investigation of dynamic processes in a stroboscopic mode, where image frames are synchronized with the phases of the dynamic target. Although the natural cosmic ray muon flux is quite low for imaging a rapid process, repetitive processes can still be studied with high time resolution by integrating a large number of frames synchronized to the process. In this paper we demonstrate the stroboscopic imaging capabilities of cosmic ray muon radiography with scintillation counters and the muon readout module. The dynamics of a chemical and melting process in an electric furnace with a size of 30 m water equivalent in diameter was investigated as an example, and stroboscopic images were obtained for hourly changes, with acquisition frames of 400 h each. The results of these experiments demonstrate the future potential for muon radiography of repetitional process, such as magma flow in a conduit.