The UT Maya Muon Project

Roy Schwitters

University of Texas at Austin

Plans to explore the ruin of a Maya Pyramid in Belize using cosmic ray muon tomography will be described. Muon tomography was pioneered by Luis Alvarez in the 1960's to explore the Second Pyramid of Chephren in Egypt. Improvements in detector technology since the Alvarez experiment suggest that muon tomography may be a practical method for exploring and monitoring relatively large underground volumes when exposure times of order months are acceptable.

A prototype detector based on Fermilab/MINOS scintillator strip/WLS fiber technology has been built and is being tested at UT Austin.  Initial results using the detector will be discussed.