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High Energy Phenomenology Seminar - Dan Snowden-Ifft (Occidental College) "Muon Tomography as an Exploration Tool"

Speaker: Dan Snowden-Ifft
Date: 11/10/2023
Time: 11 a.m.
Location: Room 464
Event Contact: Brandy Koebbe
BKOEBBE@ILLINOIS.EDU
Sponsor: Department of Physics
Event Type: Seminar/Symposium
 

Muon tomography uses naturally occurring cosmic ray muons to image up to a kilometer of intervening material on the surface of the earth.  It has been utilized to "x-ray" a variety of structures from volcanoes to nuclear reactors.  A research agreement between Occidental College and a mineral exploration company has allowed the construction of a high-resolution TPC for use in a borehole.  A discussion of the detector and early results will be presented.  A recent publication on the feasibility of using borehole detectors to discover illegal border tunnels will be described.  Finally a speculative idea for the future will be discussed.