Tomographic Muon Imaging of the Great Pyramid of Giza

  • Alan David Bross Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, P.O. Box 500, Batavia, IL, USA
  • E. C. Dukes Physics Department, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
  • Ralf Ehrlich Physics Department, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
  • Eric Fernandez Physics Department, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
  • Sophie Dukes Virginia Tech University, Blacksburg, WV, USA
  • Mohamed Gobashy Geophysics Department, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt
  • Ishbel Jamieson Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
  • Patrick J La Rivi`ere Department of Radiology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
  • Mira Liu Department of Radiology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
  • Gregory Marouard Department of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
  • Nadine Moeller Department of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
  • Anna Pla-Dalmau Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, P.O. Box 500, Batavia, IL, USA
  • Paul Rubinov Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, P.O. Box 500, Batavia, IL, USA
  • Omar Shohoud Department of Physics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
  • Phillip Vargas Department of Radiology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
  • Tabitha Welch Department of Physics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
DOI: https://doi.org/10.31526/jais.2022.280
Keywords: Cosmic-ray, tomography, Great Pyramid, muon imaging

Abstract

The pyramids of the Giza plateau have fascinated visitors since ancient times and are the last of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world still standing. It has been half a century since Luiz Alvarez and his team used cosmic-ray muon imaging to look for hidden chambers in Khafre’s Pyramid. Advances in instrumentation for High-Energy Physics (HEP) allowed a new survey, ScanPyramids, to make important new discoveries at the Great Pyramid (Khufu) utilizing the same basic technique that the Alvarez team used, but now with modern instrumentation. Exploring the Great Pyramid Mission plans to field a very large muon telescope system that will be transformational with respect to the field of cosmic-ray muon imaging. We plan to field a telescope system that has upwards of 100 times the sensitivity of the equipment that has recently been used at the Great Pyramid, will image muons from nearly all angles, and will, for the first time, produce a true tomographic image of such a large structure.

Published
2022-03-06
How to Cite
[1]
A. Bross, “Tomographic Muon Imaging of the Great Pyramid of Giza”, Journal of Advanced Instrumentation in Science, vol. 2022, Mar. 2022.
Issue
Volume 2022
Section
International Workshop on Cosmic-Ray Muography (Muography2021), Ghent, Belgium
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