Muography is technique that uses atmospheric muons as probes for imaging large structures. LouMu is an interdisciplinary project in which particle physics and earth sciences work together to explore a muon telescope for mapping densities in subsurface geophysical surveys.
The LouMu telescope is made of 4 planes of low consumption RPC detectors, developed at LIP for large cosmic ray observatories. It has been optimized while muographing the laboratory building in Coimbra, where the easily recognizable features are useful to best develop the imaging capabilities.
The telescope was just now moved to an underground gallery in an old mine at Lousal (now included in a Ciência Viva center), which is also being surveyed with other techniques by the Earth Science Institute of Évora. The aim is to compare the performance of muography with other techniques and also to develop the methods to combine with complementary geophysical information.
LouMu is really a first step, aiming to create the bases for future larger scale projects in geophysics and other applications. In the seminar we will show the images already obtained and discuss the ongoing analysis, and prospects for the first geological targets.