On site prototype tests and structure modeling for the NAUM (Non-intrusive Archaeometry Using Muons) program

The NAUM (Non-intrusive Archaeometry Using Muons) program is a collaboration of US and Mexican institutions building a muon tracker detector for the exploration of El Castillo pyramid in the archaeological zone of Chichen Itza, Mexico. The development of non-intrusive remote sensing techniques has been one of the great interdisciplinary successes of archaeometry. Ground-penetrating radar and electrical resistivity tomography are examples that are mostly used for subsurface explorations. We propose to build imaging capabilities using a complementary technique utilizing the transmission of atmospheric muons through large archaeological buildings. The detector will be able to measure the flow and direction of atmospheric muons under the pyramid. In this talk, we will be describing a smaller prototype detector site tests and initial work on modeling and measurements at the Chichen Itza site. This work is partially supported by the National Science Foundation under Grants No. NSF-PHY-2011339, NSF-PHY-2011442.