Part of the book: Advances in Photodiodes
Secondary cosmic muons provide a powerful probe to explore various aspects of the world around us. Various physical processes have been employed over the last years for such applications. Muon absorption was used to probe the interior of natural and man-made structures, from the Egypt pyramids to big volcanoes, contributing to interdisciplinary studies. Multiple scattering was employed to reconstruct the location of scattering centres, producing 2D and 3D images of the interior of hidden volumes (muon tomography). Additional possibilities of cosmic muons have been exploited even for the alignment of large civil structures and in the study of their stability. All these applications benefit from the development of advanced detection techniques and improvement in software algorithms. This contribution surveys the state of the art of these applications, with special emphasis on their possibilities and limitations.
Part of the book: Cosmic Rays