Clustering analysis for muon tomography data elaboration in the Muon Portal project

Clustering analysis is one of multivariate data analysis techniques which allows to gather statistical data units into groups, in order to minimize the logical distance within each group and to maximize the one between different groups. In these proceedings, the authors present a novel approach to the muontomography data analysis based on clustering algorithms. As a case study we present the Muon Portal project that aims to build and operate a dedicated particle detector for the inspection of harbor containers to hinder the smuggling of nuclear materials. Clustering techniques, working directly on scattering points, help to detect the presence of suspicious items inside the container, acting, as it will be shown, as a filter for a preliminary analysis of the data

An integrated visualization environment for the virtual observatory: Current status and future directions

Visual exploration and discovery applications are invaluable tools to provide prompt and intuitive insights into the intrinsic data characteristics of modern astronomy and astrophysics datasets. Due to the massively large and highly complex datasets, various technical challenges are involved to reach, e.g. interactivity, integration, navigation and collaboration. This paper describes a number of approaches to address these challenges, and focuses on the current status of VisIVO (Visualization Interface for the Virtual Observatory) concentrating on the provided tools ranging from a desktop application to a science gateway and a mobile application. We emphasize the latest developments made in the context of past and current international European funded projects and highlight planned future developments towards further integration within the framework of the Virtual Observatory

The Muon Portal Double Tracker for the Inspection of Travelling Containers

The Muon Portal Project has as its goal the design and construction of a real-size working detector prototype in scale 1:1, to inspect the content of travelling containers by means of the secondary cosmic-ray muon radiation and to recognize high-Z hidden materials (i.e. U, Pu). The tomographic image is obtained by reconstructing the input and output trajectories of each muon when it crosses the container and, consequently, the scattering angle, making use of two trackers placed above and below the container. The scan is performed without adding any external radiation, in a reasonable time (few minutes) and with a good spatial and angular resolution. The detector consists of 8 planes each segmented in 6 identical modules. Each module is made of scintillating strips with two WaveLength Shifting fibers (WLS) inside, coupled to Silicon photomultipliers. The customized read-out electronics employs programmable boards. Thanks to a smart read-out system, the number of output channels is reduced by a factor 10. The signals from the front-end modules are sent to the read-out boards, in order to convert analog signals to digital ones, by comparison with a threshold. The data are pre-analyzed and stored into a data acquisition PC. After an intense measurement and simulation campaign to carefully characterize the detector components, the first detection modules ( 1 ×3 m2) have been already built. In this paper the detector architecture, particularly focusing on the used electronics and the main preliminary results will be presented. <P /