Thursday, March 31, 2016

Searching for cavities in the Teotihuacan Pyramid of the Sun using cosmic muons

Abstract:
The Pyramid of the Sun, at Teotihuacan, Mexico, is being searched for possible hidden chambers, by means of muon attenuation measurements inside the pyramids volume. The muon tracker is located in a tunnel, running below the base and ending close to the symmetry axis of the monument. This study presents a brief description of the experimental technique and data analysis, as well as a comparison of the first year preliminary experimental results with physics simulations using GEANT4
 
Introduction
The use of cosmic muons to measure inhomogeneities in large volumes is a rapidly growing field. A classical example of this was the experiment carried out by Luis Alvarez et al. [1] who measured the attenuation of cosmic muons in the mass of the Keops Pyramid, in Giza, Egypt, while searching for hidden empty chambers. Although this technique has been applied to other practical problems, few archeological monuments present the necessary conditions to carry out a muon attenuation inspection of its volume. Among those exceptions is in the Mexican Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan, hereafter referred to as Pyramid of the Sun. In a previous presentation [2] in this conference series, we described a project aimed at solving important archaeological questions concerning the Sun at Teotihuacan, using muon attenuation. Here we present an update on this project, which began its data-taking few months ago, including important experimental aspects, and details of the corresponding GEANT 4 Monte Carlo [3] simulations which are compared with our first experimental image.
 
Electronics (click for current versions): CAEN V1729 VME 4-ch, 12-bit 2 GS/s Switched Capacitor digitizer.
 
 
 

Saturday, March 26, 2016

Simple and Fast Cryocooling for Thin Films

Using the CryoLab S or CryoLab MSG you can perform various types of measurements on your thin film sample including:
  1. - Critical temperature characterisation
  2. - Van der Pauw measurements
  3. - Seebeck coefficient
  4. - Thermal properties and many more
Using The CryoLab, it is possible to characterise your thin film from 373 Kelvin down to cryogenic temperatures.



Friday, March 18, 2016

The LHC is restarting

The LHC, last among all of CERN’s accelerators, is resuming operation with beam while this issue goes to press. The year-end technical stop (YETS) started on 14 December 2015. During the 11 weeks of scheduled maintenance activities, several interventions have taken place in all of the accelerators and beamlines. They included the maintenance of the cryogenic system at several points; the replacement of 18 magnets in the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS); an extensive campaign to identify and remove thousands of obsolete cables; the replacement of the LHC beam absorbers for injection (TDIs) that are used to absorb the SPS beam if a problem occurs, providing vital protection for the LHC; and 12 LHC collimators have been dismantled and reinstalled after modification of the vacuum chambers, which restricted their movement.
 
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