Method and apparatus for detection and/or identification of materials and of articles using charged particles

1. A method of detecting and/or identifying a material or article ( 52 ) in a volume of interest, the volume of interest including a plurality of voxels, the method including:

a) detecting, with an input hodoscope ( 12 , 16 ), charged particles entering the volume of interest;

b) detecting, with an output hodoscope ( 14 , 18 ), charged particles leaving the volume of interest ( 50 );

c) associating particles leaving the volume of interest with particles entering the volume of interest and determining therefrom a set of completed trajectories for the particles;

d) performing filtering based on the deflection angles in the input and/or the output hodoscopes of the particles with completed trajectories;

e) calculating a volume density map by using back projection of the filtered completed trajectories which passed through each respective voxel, the map representing a number of completed trajectories and/or a scattering angle; and

f) detecting and/or identifying the material or article in the volume of interest from the volume density map,

wherein in operations c, d and e the set of completed trajectories consists of completed trajectories having associated deflection angles within a specific range of deflections, and wherein the particles are leptons and the method includes selecting the range or ranges of deflection angles such that electrons and muons are at least partly separated.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein in step d) filtering is also performed based on the scattering angle of particles in the volume of interest ( 50 ).

3. The method of claim 1 , including determination of a plurality of volume density maps using different sets of filtering parameters.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein volume density map calculation is undertaken using different back projection parameters.

5. The method of claim 1 , further including:

g) defining a region of interest corresponding to the material in the volume of interest ( 50 );

h) producing a first distribution function relating to the region of interest from the volume density map.

6. The method of claim 5 , including:

i) recognising at least one feature of the first distribution function to identify the material in the volume of interest ( 50 ).

7. The method of claim 1 , including selecting the range or ranges of deflection angles such that the electrons and low-momentum muons are separated from higher momentum muons.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein total deflection angles for completed trajectories within hodoscopes ( 12 , 14 , 16 , 18 ) and the volume of interest ( 50 ) below a certain threshold are counted as non-deflected and treated as straightforward trajectories.

9. A detection and/or identification assembly ( 10 ) for leptons, including:

a) an input hodoscope ( 12 , 16 ) adjacent a volume of interest ( 50 ), the volume of interest including a plurality of voxels and the input hodoscope being configured to detect charged particles entering the volume of interest;

b) an output hodoscope ( 14 , 18 ) bounding the volume of interest, the output hodoscope being configured to detect charged particles leaving the volume of interest;

c) a processor configured to receive detection data from the input and output hodoscopes, the processor further being configured to:

1) associate particles leaving the volume of interest with particles entering the volume of interest and determine therefrom a set of completed trajectories consisting of completed trajectories having associated deflection angles within a specific range of deflections selected such that electrons and muons are at least partly separated;

2) perform filtering based on the deflection angles in the input and/or output hodoscopes of the particles with completed trajectories;

3) calculate a volume density map, by using back projection of the filtered completed trajectories which passed through each respective voxel, the map representing a number of completed trajectories and/or a scattering angle; and

4) detect and/or identify a material or an article in the volume of interest from the volume density map.

10. A method of detecting and/or identifying a material or article ( 52 ) in a volume of interest, the volume of interest including a plurality of voxels, the method including:

a) detecting, with an input hodoscope ( 12 , 16 ), charged particles entering the volume of interest;

b) detecting, with an output hodoscope ( 14 , 18 ), charged particles leaving the volume of interest ( 50 );

c) associating particles leaving the volume of interest with particles entering the volume of interest and determining therefrom a set of completed trajectories for the particles;

d) performing filtering based on the deflection angles in the input and/or the output hodoscopes of the particles with completed trajectories;

e) calculating a volume density map by using back projection of the filtered completed trajectories which passed through each respective voxel, the map representing a number of completed trajectories and/or a scattering angle, wherein volume density map calculation is undertaken using different back projection parameters; and

f) detecting and/or identifying the material or article in the volume of interest from the volume density map.

11. A detection and/or identification assembly ( 10 ), including:

a) an input hodoscope ( 12 , 16 ) adjacent a volume of interest ( 50 ), the volume of interest including a plurality of voxels and the input hodoscope being configured to detect charged particles entering the volume of interest;

b) an output hodoscope ( 14 , 18 ) bounding the volume of interest, the output hodoscope being configured to detect charged particles leaving the volume of interest;

c) a processor configured to:

1) receive detection data from the input and output hodoscopes,

2) associate particles leaving the volume of interest with particles entering the volume of interest and determine therefrom completed trajectories in the input and/or the output hodoscopes;

3) perform filtering based on the deflection angles of the completed trajectories;

4) calculate a volume density map, by using back projection of the filtered completed trajectories which passed through each respective voxel, the map representing a number of completed trajectories and/or a scattering angle, wherein volume density map calculation is undertaken using different back projection parameters; and

5) detect and/or identify a material or an article in the volume of interest from the volume density map.

12. A detection and/or identification assembly ( 10 ), including:

a) an input hodoscope ( 12 , 16 ) adjacent a volume of interest ( 50 ), the volume of interest including a plurality of voxels and the input hodoscope being configured to detect leptons entering the volume of interest;

b) an output hodoscope ( 14 , 18 ) bounding the volume of interest, the output hodoscope being configured to detect leptons leaving the volume of interest;

c) a processor configured to:

1) receive detection data from the input and output hodoscopes,

2) associate leptons leaving the volume of interest with leptons entering the volume of interest and determine therefrom completed trajectories in the input and/or the output hodoscopes;

3) perform filtering based on the deflection angles of the completed trajectories;

4) calculate a volume density map, by using back projection of the filtered completed trajectories which passed through each respective voxel, the map representing a number of completed trajectories and/or a scattering angle; and

5) detect and/or identify a material or an article in the volume of interest from the volume density map,

wherein the set of completed trajectories consists of completed trajectories having associated deflection angles within a specific range of deflections, and wherein the method includes selecting the range or ranges of deflection angles such that electrons and muons are at least partly separated.