Physics Colloquium: Muon Radiography at the Los Alamos National Laboratory

Thursday, February 7, 2019

3:30 PM-4:30 PM

Elena Guardincerri, PhD, Los Alamos National Lab

Cosmic-ray muons are free, ubiquitous, very penetrating particles. Muon radiography takes advantage of them to probe objects that, because of their thickness or the shielding around them, would be out of the reach of more traditional radiographic techniques.

I will briefly review the different techniques that are currently used to perform cosmic-ray muon radiography and discuss some applications to actual problems.

I will discuss, in particular, the use of cosmic ray muons to image shallow geophysical objects, and in particular the use of this technique to obtain a 3D image of a mesa in Los Alamos, NM.

I will then show some industrial applications of muon radiography.

Lastly I will discuss the use of cosmic ray muons to image the interior of thick walls for historic preservation purposes and our plans to image the interior wall of the cathedral of Florence, Italy.

Contact Information

Professor Michelle Dolinski
dolinski@physics.drexel.edu