A Borehole Muon Telescope for Underground Muography

Radiographic imaging with muons by absorption, also called Muon Radiography or Muography, is a methodology based on the characteristic of the matter to be crossed by high energy muons. This physical property allows muons to pass through the material with a measurable degree of absorption depending on the density of the material. Muon Radiography applies to several different situations and is particularly suitable for investigating subsoil of civil or archaeological interest. This kind of applications needs the muon detector to be installed below the target region. A novel borehole cylindrical detector has been built and tested for use in harsh conditions and for limited space installations. It is based on the past expertise with scintillator detectors and is composed of two types of scintillating elements, bar-shaped and arcshaped. Due to its size, it can be easily installed in drilled holes of 25 cm in diameter or more, typically economical to make. Here, we describe the idea, commissioning, and some preliminary results

Muon Radiography Investigations in Boreholes with a Newly Designed Cylindrical Detector

Muons are constantly produced in cosmic-rays and reach the Earth surface with a flux of about 160 particles per second per square meter. The abundance of muons with respect to other cosmic particles and their capability to cross dense materials with low absorption rate allow them to be exploited for large scale geological or human-made object imaging. Muon radiography is based on similar principles as X-ray radiography, measuring the surviving rate of muons escaping the target and relating it to the mass distribution inside the object. In the course of decades, after the first application in 1955, the methodology has been applied in several different fields. Muography allows us to measure the internal density distribution of the investigated object, or to simply highlight the presence of void regions by observing any excess of muons. Most of these applications require the detector to be installed below the rock being probed. In case that possible installation sites are not easily accessible by people, common instrumentation cannot be installed. A novel borehole cylindrical detector for muon radiography has been recently developed to deal with these conditions. It has been realized with a cylindrical geometry to fit typical borehole dimensions. Its design maximizes the geometrical acceptance, minimizing the dead spaces by the use of arc-shaped scintillators. The details of the construction and preliminary results of the first usage are described in this paper

The MURAVES muon telescope: technology and expected performances

The MURAVES project aims to study the inner structure of the upper part of the Mt. Vesuvius volcano by muon radiography (muography) technique. Very high energy muons, produced by cosmic rays in the at- mosphere, can penetrate large thickness of rocks. By measuring the at- tenuation of the muons flux trough the volcano cone is possible to obtain a 2D image of the density structure. Internal discontinuities, with a spa- tial resolution of about 10 m, can be, in principle, resolved. An absolute average density measurement can be provided too. The project, funded by the Italian Ministry of University, Research and Education (MIUR), is led by INGV and INFN. In this article the mechanical structure of the de- tectors and background suppression techniques are reported

NA62 Technical Design

NA62 technical design repor

Heavy neutrino searches and NA62 status

The NA62 experiment at CERN SPS recorded in 2007 a large sample of $K^+\to\mu^+\nu_\mu$ decays. A peak search in the missing mass spectrum of this decay is performed. In the absence of observed signal, the limits obtained on $\mathcal{B}(K^+\to\mu^+\nu_h)$ and on the mixing matrix element $|U_{\mu4}|^2$ are reported. The upgraded NA62 experiment started data taking in 2015, with the aim of measuring the branching fraction of the $K+\to\pi^+\nu\bar{\nu}$ decay. An update on the status of the experiment is presented.The NA62 experiment at CERN SPS recorded in 2007 a large sample of $K^+ \to \mu^+ \nu_{\mu}$ decays. A peak search in the missing mass spectrum of this decay is performed. In the absence of observed signal, the limits obtained on $\mathcal{B}(K^+ \to \mu^+ \nu_h)$ and on the mixing matrix element $\lvert U_{\mu 4} \rvert ^2$ are reported. The upgraded NA62 experiment started data taking in 2015, with the aim of measuring the branching fraction of the $K^+ \to \pi^+ \nu \bar{\nu}$ decay. An update on the status of the experiment is presented

The beam and detector of the NA62 experiment at CERN

NA62 is a fixed-target experiment at the CERN SPS dedicated to measurements of rare kaon decays. Such measurements, like the branching fraction of the K(+) → π(+) ν bar nu decay, have the potential to bring significant insights into new physics processes when comparison is made with precise theoretical predictions. For this purpose, innovative techniques have been developed, in particular, in the domain of low-mass tracking devices. Detector construction spanned several years from 2009 to 2014. The collaboration started detector commissioning in 2014 and will collect data until the end of 2018. The beam line and detector components are described together with their early performance obtained from 2014 and 2015 data.NA62 is a fixed-target experiment at the CERN SPS dedicated to measurements of rare kaon decays. Such measurements, like the branching fraction of the $K^{+} \rightarrow \pi^{+} \nu \bar\nu$ decay, have the potential to bring significant insights into new physics processes when comparison is made with precise theoretical predictions. For this purpose, innovative techniques have been developed, in particular, in the domain of low-mass tracking devices. Detector construction spanned several years from 2009 to 2014. The collaboration started detector commissioning in 2014 and will collect data until the end of 2018. The beam line and detector components are described together with their early performance obtained from 2014 and 2015 data