Non-destructive Elemental Analysis of Lunar Materials with Negative Muon Beam at J-PARC

Abstract

Abstract In the last decade, non-destructive elemental analysis using negative muon beams advanced significantly. This method can be used to determine the elemental composition of bulk materials without causing damage. In this study, we performed a negative muon irradiation experiment for a Northwest Africa 482 lunar meteorite (NWA482), which was installed in a stainless steel analysis chamber. The analysis chamber was filled with helium gas to suppress the background signals caused by air-scattering muons. The muonic X-rays from Al, Fe, Ca, Mg, Si, and O in the samples were detected using six high-purity germanium semiconductor detectors arranged around the analysis chamber. To correct the X-ray self-absorption effect of the samples, a Monte-Carlo simulation using Geant4 toolkit was used. Based on the quantitative analysis for muonic X-ray measurement with the correction application from the simulation, we successfully investigated the analytical sensitivity of each element in meteorites based on the NWA482 data.