The purpose of the MU-RAY project is to develop an innovative approach to the study of volcanoes and their monitoring based on a particle physics approach. The test site is Vesuvio: one of the higher ...risk volcanoes in the world. In this context, muon radiography is an innovative method of enormous impact. This is an imaging technique which relies on the measurement, by means of a cosmic ray telescope, of the absorption in the volcano of muons with near-horizontal trajectories, produced by the interactions of cosmic rays with the atmosphere. Since 2003 this technique has been successfully used on volcanoes in Japan, providing pictures of their vertices with resolutions much better than those obtained with the traditional techniques based on gravimeters. Researchers from Naples and Florence are currently involved in the construction and testing of a prototype telescope based on the use of bars of plastic scintillator with a triangular section whose scintillation light is collected by special fibres (wave length shifters) and transported to SiPM (Silicon photomultipliers). A complete prototype telescope, consisting of three xy scintillation planes and 1m2 active area has been assembled and is now under test.
The development of a new camera based on the use of Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPM) proposed for the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), which represents a new generation of ground based very high ...energy gamma ray observatory, is one of the main items of the Italian Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN). In the R&D framework a single channel electronic charge preamplifier has been developed to improve the performance of photon cameras equipped with High Density NUV – HD SiPM produced by Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK) with a micro cell of 30 μm x 30 μm and 6 mm x 6 mm total area. The single channel preamplifier will be used as basic component for a 16-channel electronic board prototype to test the 8 x 8 NUV – HD SiPM modules proposed to equip a pSCT (Schwarzschild-Couder Telescope prototype) camera. In this work the results of tests on the single channel preamplifier prototype to optimize the SiPM performances will be presented.
The MU-RAY detector for muon radiography of volcanoes Anastasio, A.; Ambrosino, F.; Basta, D. ...
Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment,
12/2013, Letnik:
732
Journal Article, Conference Proceeding
Recenzirano
The MU-RAY detector has been designed to perform muon radiography of volcanoes. The possible use on the field introduces several constraints. First the electric power consumption must be reduced to ...the minimum, so that the detector can be solar-powered. Moreover it must be robust and transportable, for what concerns the front-end electronics and data acquisition. A 1m2 prototype has been constructed and is taking data at Mt. Vesuvius. The detector consists of modules of 32 scintillator bars with wave length shifting fibers and silicon photomultiplier read-out. A dedicated front-end electronics has been developed, based on the SPIROC ASIC. An introduction to muon radiography principles, the MU-RAY detector description and results obtained in laboratory will be presented.
The MU-RAY project: Volcano radiography with cosmic-ray muons Ambrosi, G.; Ambrosino, F.; Battiston, R. ...
Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment,
02/2011, Letnik:
628, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Cosmic-ray muon radiography is a technique for imaging the variation of density inside the top few 100
m of a volcanic cone. With resolutions up to 10s of meters in optimal detection conditions, muon ...radiography can provide images of the top region of a volcano edifice with a resolution that is considerably better than that typically achieved with conventional methods. Such precise measurements are expected to provide us with information on anomalies in the rock density distribution, like those expected from dense lava conduits, low density magma supply paths or the compression with depth of the overlying soil. The MU-RAY project aims at the construction of muon telescopes and the development of new analysis tools for muon radiography. The telescopes are required to be able to work in harsh environment and to have low power consumption, good angular and time resolutions, large active area and modularity. The telescope consists of two
X–
Y planes of 2×2 square meters area made by plastic scintillator strips of triangular shape. Each strip is read by a fast WLS fiber coupled to a silicon photomultiplier. The readout electronics is based on the SPIROC chip.
Recoil Directionality Experiment Sanfilippo, S.; Agnes, P.; Arba, M. ...
EPJ Web of Conferences,
2019, Letnik:
209
Journal Article, Conference Proceeding
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Directional sensitivity to nuclear recoils could provide a smoking gun for a possible discovery of dark matter in the form of WIMPs. A hint of directional dependence of the response of a dual-phase ...liquid argon Time Projection Chamber was found in the SCENE experiment. Given the potential importance of such a capability in the frame work of dark matter searches, a new dedicated experiment, ReD (Recoil Directionality), was designed in the framework of the DarkSide Collaboration, in order to scrutinize this hint. This contribution will describe the performance of the detectors achieved during the first test-beam, the current status of ReD and the perspectives for physics measurements during the forthcoming beam-time.
A new cylindrical detector for borehole muon radiography Saracino, G.; Ambrosino, F.; Anastasio, A. ...
Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment,
March 2023, 2023-03-00, Letnik:
1048
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Muons of cosmic origin have a great capability to penetrate through matter. This property is exploited in muon radiography, also known as muography, a technique which allows to highlight the presence ...of discontinuities of the mass density in the subsoil such as cavities, tunnels or rock masses. A detector of cylindrical geometry, optimized for borehole studies and with a diameter of 24 cm, was developed and tested . The scintillation light is read out by 384 Silicon Photomultipliers, directly coupled to the bars. The front-end and acquisition electronics, entirely housed inside the detector, are based on the EASIROC chip and are characterized by limited energy consumption (about 30 W for the entire detector). The detector has been designed in such a way as to simplify its construction as much as possible for its eventual mass production. In this article some details concerning the construction and preliminary results of measurements conducted in the Mt Echia (Naples, Italy) underground are presented.
The Schwarzschild-Couder Telescope (SCT) is a telescope concept proposed for the Cherenkov Telescope Array. It employs a dual-mirror optical design to remove comatic aberrations over an 8∘ field of ...view, and a high-density silicon photomultiplier camera (with a pixel resolution of 4 arcmin) to record Cherenkov emission from cosmic ray and gamma-ray initiated particle cascades in the atmosphere. The prototype SCT (pSCT), comprising a 9.7 m diameter primary mirror and a partially instrumented camera with 1536 pixels, has been constructed at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory. The telescope was inaugurated in January 2019, with commissioning continuing throughout 2019. We describe the first campaign of observations with the pSCT, conducted in January and February of 2020, and demonstrate the detection of gamma-ray emission from the Crab Nebula with a statistical significance of 8.6σ.
The Near Ultraviolet High Density (NUV-HD) SiPMs produced by Fondazione Bruno Kessler have been employed to develop 16-pixel optical units to equip the focal plane of the prototype ...Schwarzschild–Couder Telescope (pSCT) proposed as a possible design for the Medium-Sized Telescope of the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory. After the assembly procedure, the optical units were tested and characterized to study their performance and homogeneity in terms of gain and dark count rate. In this work, we report on the assembly procedure and on the laboratory tests performed on different production of NUV-HD and the selection we made for the best quality sensors to be used in the installation on the telescope camera. Currently 36 NUV-HD3 optical units have been successfully integrated on the pSCT camera, together with 64 HAMAMATSU MPPCs. An upgrade of the pSCT camera is foreseen over the next years when the full focal plane is expected to be equipped entirely with FBK NUV-HD3 SiPMs, for a total of 11328 pixels.
Recent developments on Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs) have shown that they are particularly adequate to detect fast signal due to low-intensity light. Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK) has optimized ...these sensors for the Near-Ultraviolet Cherenkov light emitted by high energy gamma-ray showers in the atmosphere. The FBK high density SiPMs (NUV-HD) have been extensively characterized in the laboratories of the Italian Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) in view of equipping the focal plane camera of the Schwarzschild–Couder Telescope prototype (pSCT) in the framework of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). Here we report the performances of the 6 × 6 mm2 SiPMs based on 40 × 40 μm2 cells, in terms of gain and signal-to-noise ratio. We compare the results obtained on devices from the latest generation and grown on different substrates in order to choose the most suitable sensor for the pSCT camera.
In recent years, Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs) have proven to be highly suitable devices for applications where high sensitivity to low-intensity light and fast responses are required. Among their ...many advantages are their low operational voltage when compared with classical photomultiplier tubes, mechanical robustness, and increased photon detection efficiency (PDE).
Here we present a full characterization of a SiPM device technology developed in Italy by Fondazione Bruno Kessler, which is suitable for Cherenkov light detection in the Near-Ultraviolet (NUV) band. This device is a High-Density (HD) NUV SiPM, based on a microcell of 40μm×40μm and with an area of 6 × 6mm2, providing low levels of dark noise and high PDE peaking in the NUV band. This particular device has been selected to equip a part of the focal plane of the Schwarzschild–Couder Telescope (SCT) prototype proposed for the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) Observatory.
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