Simulation study of accelerator-based muography using the GeV-scale forward muon component at SHINE
Abstract
Muography exploits the penetrating power of muons to image the interior of large dense objects, but cosmic-ray sources provide only ~1 {cm}^{-2} {min}^{-1} predominantly from above, limiting imaging speed and accessible geometries. Electron-driven muon production has recently been demonstrated with laser-wakefield accelerators, but shot-to-shot fluctuations hinder systematic studies required for quantitative accelerator muography. Using Geant4 Monte Carlo simulations, we model the full experimental setup at Shaft 2 of the Shanghai High repetition rate XFEL and Extreme light facility (SHINE), from a 3 GeV, 50 pC, 50 Hz commissioning electron beam interacting with a muon target through 25 m of beamline structures and a 3 m-thick concrete isolation wall. Approximately 0.28 effective reconstructed single-muon events per bunch, with residual kinetic energies below 1.2 GeV after traversing the wall, reach the downstream muography test area (~14 s^{-1}). The wall absorbs most charged background particles below ~1 GeV, while residual neutrons can be discriminated by their characteristic detector energy deposition. Scattering-tomography simulations show that 3× 105 effective muon events, accumulated in approximately 6 h at the commissioning rate, yield a Structural Similarity Index above 0.9, demonstrating the feasibility of quantitative accelerator-based muography using SHINE's electron-driven GeV-scale forward muon source. At the 8 GeV/50 kHz benchmark, the projected muon intensity exceeds 5 × 104 μ/s, corresponding conservatively to approximately one muon per bunch at the detector. This exceeds the cosmic-ray flux by orders of magnitude, while SHINE's superconducting linac provides a stable, controlled platform for developing electron-on-target muography.
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BibTeX
@misc{wang2026simulation,
title = {{Simulation study of accelerator-based muography using the GeV-scale forward muon component at SHINE}},
author = {Jiangtao Wang and Yinghe Wang and Si Chen and Rongbing Deng and Kim Siang Khaw and Jun Kai Ng and Qisheng Tang and Dong Wang and Wenzhen Xu and Jia Cheng Yap},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.15846},
eprint = {2609.15846},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.15846},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Simulation study of accelerator-based muography using the GeV-scale forward muon component at SHINE
AU - Jiangtao Wang
AU - Yinghe Wang
AU - Si Chen
AU - Rongbing Deng
AU - Kim Siang Khaw
AU - Jun Kai Ng
AU - Qisheng Tang
AU - Dong Wang
AU - Wenzhen Xu
AU - Jia Cheng Yap
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/14
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.15846
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.15846
AB - Muography exploits the penetrating power of muons to image the interior of large dense objects, but cosmic-ray sources provide only ~1 {cm}^{-2} {min}^{-1} predominantly from above, limiting imaging speed and accessible geometries. Electron-driven muon production has recently been demonstrated with laser-wakefield accelerators, but shot-to-shot fluctuations hinder systematic studies required for quantitative accelerator muography. Using Geant4 Monte Carlo simulations, we model the full experimental setup at Shaft 2 of the Shanghai High repetition rate XFEL and Extreme light facility (SHINE), from a 3 GeV, 50 pC, 50 Hz commissioning electron beam interacting with a muon target through 25 m of beamline structures and a 3 m-thick concrete isolation wall. Approximately 0.28 effective reconstructed single-muon events per bunch, with residual kinetic energies below 1.2 GeV after traversing the wall, reach the downstream muography test area (~14 s^{-1}). The wall absorbs most charged background particles below ~1 GeV, while residual neutrons can be discriminated by their characteristic detector energy deposition. Scattering-tomography simulations show that 3× 10^5 effective muon events, accumulated in approximately 6 h at the commissioning rate, yield a Structural Similarity Index above 0.9, demonstrating the feasibility of quantitative accelerator-based muography using SHINE's electron-driven GeV-scale forward muon source. At the 8 GeV/50 kHz benchmark, the projected muon intensity exceeds 5 × 10^4 μ/s, corresponding conservatively to approximately one muon per bunch at the detector. This exceeds the cosmic-ray flux by orders of magnitude, while SHINE's superconducting linac provides a stable, controlled platform for developing electron-on-target muography.
ER -