PHYS 523 Fall 2025
PHYS 523 :: Physics Illinois :: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Focus area: Muon Tomography
Introduction: see here
Homework assignments
- August 28, 2025: decide which focus area you will pick and team up with another student.
- August 26, 2025: discuss the topics introduced today with the other 523 students.
Literature
Muons:
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[6] PDG: Passage of Particles through Matter (2023), https://pdg.lbl.gov/2023/web/viewer.html?file=../reviews/rpp2022-rev-passage-particles-matter.pdf
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[7] PDG: Cosmic Rays (2023), https://pdg.lbl.gov/2023/web/viewer.html?file=../reviews/rpp2022-rev-cosmic-rays.pdf
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[8] A. Zilles, Introduction to Cosmic Rays and Extensive Air Showers, https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-63411-1_1
Detectors:
- [H] William R. Leo, Techniques for Nuclear and Particle Physics Experiments, Springer 1994, https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-642-57920-2
- Chapters 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and later chapters as needed
- [9] Pasyuk, N.A., Kompaniets, K.G., Petrukhin, A.A. et al. Scintillation Strip Detector of a Hybrid Hodoscope for Muon Tomography of Large-scale Objects. Instrum Exp Tech 67, 672–681 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0020441224701069
Mining:
Cargo:
- [1] Chris Morris et al., Tomographic Imaging with Cosmic Ray Muons. Science & Global Security, 16(1–2), 37–53 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1080/08929880802335758
Pyramids:
- [3] Elizabeth Gibney, Muons: the little-known particles helping to probe the impenetrable, Nature News May 24, 2025, https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05254-2
- [5] K. Morishima et al., Discovery of a big void in Khufu’s Pyramid by observation of cosmic-ray muons, doi:10.1038/nature24647, https://www.nature.com/articles/nature24647.epdf
Code and design resources
Simulations
Simulations guide us in informing the design of a setup - dimensions, material, arrangement, and so on. For the Muon Tomography focus area, we will be using C++ based software toolkits that were developed at CERN, the European Center for Nuclear Research:
- GEANT4 for the simulation of the passage of particles through matter. https://geant4.web.cern.ch/
- GARFIELD++ for the detailed simulation of particle detectors based on ionization measurements in gases and semiconductors. https://garfieldpp.docs.cern.ch/
Project Management
We recommend one of the following cloud-based tools, but other choices are possible and welcome, in particular if you are already familiar!
- ClickUp - https://clickup.com/
- Freedcamp - https://freedcamp.com/
Design
to come.
Microtutorials
to come.