The ScIDEP Project at the Egyptian Pyramid of Khafre

Abstract

The ScIDEP (Scintillator Imaging Detector for the Egyptian Pyramids) Collaboration is constructing a new scintillator-based muon telescope to investigate the internal structure of the Pyramid of Khafre at the Giza Plateau in Egypt. This pyramid is only slightly smaller than the Great Pyramid of Khufu, however, its known internal structure seems much simpler compared to the latter and hence raises the question if there are any hidden rooms or structures that have yet to be discovered. The previous and very first muography campaign performed at this pyramid conducted by Alvarez et al. in the 1970s yielded no indications of any hidden structures. The current project aims to install a new muon telescope inside the king’s burial chamber which is located near ground level at the bottom of the pyramid, slightly off-center from the central axis. The base muon detector that has been developed consists of two 61× 61× 2 cm³ plastic scintillator planes with wavelength shifting fibers embedded in orthogonal orientations in both faces of each scintillator, to retrieve 2D hit information from each plane for muon tracking. The scintillation light is read out by SiPMs connected to each individual fiber. The data-acquisition system is based on commercial CAEN PETIROC ASIC-based digitizer modules. The detector construction is being completed and commissioning of the setup in the lab is currently ongoing. In parallel to the detector commissioning, a detailed simulation package for the full setup is being developed. For the simulation, the cosmic ray spectrum is taken from the CRY generator, while the particle transport through the pyramid and the detector is modelled both in the Geant4 and MCNP simulation packages.