Particle Geophysics

Abstract

Geophysics research has long been dominated by classical mechanics, largely disregarding the potential of particle physics to augment existing techniques. The purpose of this article is to review recent progress in probing Earth's interior with muons and neutrinos. Existing results for various volcanological targets are reviewed. Geoneutrinos are also highlighted as examples in which the neutrino probes elucidate the composition of Earth's deep interior. Particle geophysics has the potential to serve as a useful paradigm to transform our understanding of Earth as dramatically as the X-ray transformed our understanding of medicine and the body.

Development of the very long-range cosmic-ray muon radiographic imaging technique to explore the internal structure of an erupting volcano, Shinmoe-dake, Japan

“…To date, one of the keys to successful volcano muography that directly contributes to the understanding of the eruption dynamics has been to shorten the time required for capturing a practical radiographic image of an erupting volcano (Tanaka, 2014). For example, Tanaka et al (2014) reduced electromagnetic background events by adding redundant detectors and radiation shields to a conventional muography telescope (e.g., Tanaka and Yokoyama, 2013), thereby improving the time resolution.…”

Non-destructive elemental analysis of a carbonaceous chondrite with direct current Muon beam at MuSIC

“…The muon is one of the charged leptons, and has a mass of 105.7 MeV/ c 2 , approximately 200 times heavier than the electron. Because muons have much higher transmissivity than electrons and X-rays, cosmic-ray muon tomography/radiography has been used to image the interiors of volcanoes 1 , nuclear waste 2 and Fukushima nuclear reactors 3 .…”

Development of the very long range muographic imaging technique to explore the internal structure of an erupting volcano, Shinmoe-dake, Japan

“…To date, one of the keys to successful volcano muography that directly contributes to the understanding of the eruption dynamics has been to shorten the time required for capturing a practical radiographic image of an erupting volcano (Tanaka, 2014). For example, Tanaka et al (2014) reduced electromagnetic background events by adding redundant detectors and radiation shields to a conventional muography telescope (e.g., Tanaka and Yokoyama, 2013), thereby improving the time resolution. They successfully visualized magma movements with a time resolution of 3 days.…”

“…They successfully visualized magma movements with a time resolution of 3 days. The reduction of background events is known to be essential for shortening the measurement time (Tanaka and Yokoyama, 2013).…”

“…Another important benefit of muography is that it allows us to observe hazardous volcanoes from a long distance. However, the telescopes have needed to be placed in the vicinity (0.5-1.6 km) of the volcano craters (Tanaka et al, 2014(Tanaka et al, , 2010b(Tanaka et al, , 2009a(Tanaka et al, , b, 2007aDe Lellis et al, 2014;Tanaka and Yokoyama, 2013;Carbone et al, 2013;Kusagaya et al, 2013;Lesparre et al, 2012;Hernández et al, 2013;Miyamoto et al, 2012) (Fig. 1).…”