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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Portable muon beam could accelerate archaeology scans

Laser plasma device could be light enough to be used on the field.
A close-up of the BELLA PW laser apparatus, lit with a soft green light

The authors used the Berkeley Laboratory Laser Accelerator to produce muons without a bulky, conventional proton accelerator. Credit: Thor Swift

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Physicists have worked out how to make beams of muons without using a huge particle accelerator1. Muons are subatomic particles that form when cosmic rays collide with particles in the Earth’s upper atmosphere. Scientists can use them to image hard-to-reach places: such ‘muography’ has uncovered a hidden chamber in the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt2, and can be used to peer inside magma chambers of volcanoes.

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Nature 646, 519 (2025)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-03245-8

References

  1. Terzani, D. et al. Phys. Rev. Accel. Beams https://doi.org/10.1103/kxjr-h7zs (2025).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Procureur, S. et al. Nature Commun. 14, 1144 (2023).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

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