Rapid cargo verification with cosmic ray muon scattering and absorption tomography

Abstract Cosmic ray muon tomography is considered a promising method for the non-invasive inspection of shipping containers and trucks. It utilizes highly penetrating cosmic-ray muons and their interactions with various materials to generate three-dimensional images of large and dense materials, like inter-modal shipping containers, typically not transparent with conventional X-ray radiography techniques. The commonly used methods for imaging with muons are based on muon scattering or absorption-transmission data analysis. Due to large thickness of cargo material in shipping container substantial scattering and absorption occur when muons are passing through cargo. One of the key tasks of customs and border security is to verify shipping container declarations to prevent illegal trafficking, and muon tomography could be a viable choice for this task. In this paper, we demonstrate through Monte Carlo simulations using the GEANT4 toolkit that a combined analysis of muon scattering and absorption data can improve the identification of cargo materials compared to using scattering or absorption data alone. The statistical differences in scattering and absorption data for several cargo materials are quantified. For a particular smuggling scenario where tobacco declared as paper towel rolls, it is demonstrated that the combined analysis can accurately distinguish between tobacco and paper towel rolls with 5.5 σ accuracy for detector spatial resolution (FWHM) of 0.235 mm, 4.5 σ for 1.175 mm resolution (FWHM), and 3.9 σ accuracy for 2.35 mm spatial resolution (FWHM), in a short scanning time of 10 seconds. This rapid detection capability has significant implications for anti-smuggling efforts and cargo inspection.