sensors Article Feasibility Study of a New Cherenkov Detector for Improving Volcano Muography Domenico Lo Presti 1,2,† , Giuseppe Gallo 1,3,*,† , Danilo L. Bonanno 2,† , Daniele G. Bongiovanni 3,†, Fabio Longhitano 2,† and Santo Reito 2,† 1 Department of Physics and Astronomy “E. Maiorana”, University of Catania, Via S. Sofia 64, 95123 Catania, Italy;
[email protected] 2 National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), Sezione di Catania, Via S. Sofia 64, 95123 Catania, Italy;
[email protected] (D.L.B.);
[email protected] (F.L.);
[email protected] (S.R.) 3 National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Via S. Sofia 62, 95123 Catania, Italy;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected] † These authors contributed equally to this work. Received: 18 January 2019; Accepted: 5 March 2019; Published: 8 March 2019 Abstract: Muography is an expanding technique for internal structure investigation of large volume object, such as pyramids, volcanoes and also underground cavities. It is based on the attenuation of muon flux through the target in a way similar to the attenuation of X-ray flux through the human body for standard radiography. Muon imaging have to face with high background level, especially compared with the tiny near horizontal muon flux. In this paper the authors propose an innovative technique based on the measurement of Cherenkov radiation by Silicon photo-multipliers arrays to be integrated in a standard telescope for muography applications. Its feasibility study was accomplished by means of Geant4 simulations for the measurement of the directionality of cosmic-ray muons.