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Researchers are capturing previously elusive details about cultural artefacts, such as fragile ancient Italian violins and 3,500 years old Egyptian grave-goods thanks to a new scientific instrument designed and built in the UK.

Funded by a £4m investment from the UK Government’s Large Facilities Capital Fund the new imaging capabilities of the instrument IMAT (Imaging and Materials Science & Engineering) will enable scientists, for the very first time, to produce three-dimensional images that will reveal the structure of fragile items without damaging the objects themselves. This has applications across a diverse range of areas from aerospace, agriculture and cultural artefacts.

IMAT is the latest instrument to go live at the UK’s ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, a world leading research facility supported by the UK’s Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), and is remarkable for its ability to offer a broad range of imaging and diffraction applications. Many projects will require only one analysis technique, but having this versatility for both diffraction and imaging options on the same beamline will enable new types of experiments to be performed on the one instrument.

The IMAT imaging systems were developed in collaboration with Italian scientists funded through the Italian CNR research council and a neutron detector developed by a group at Berkeley, USA.

Aerial view of the new IMAT instrument
(Credit: STFC)

Some of the first experiments at IMAT are studying the effects that the choice of different materials used in the creation of a Stradivarius violin has on the sound that it produces. Other tests will study the methods used by ancient Egyptians to make vases and alabasters over 3,000 years ago.

Professor Robert McGreevy, Director of STFC’s ISIS Neutron and Muon Source said yesterday: “The studies taking place today will provide important insights into our cultural heritage. Longer term, we expect to see IMAT enable advances in a wide range of applications, from aerospace, civil engineering and power generation to earth science and agriculture.”

Cultural heritage studies of this kind, along with a number of other research areas, have expanded as a result of Italian collaboration with the ISIS team at STFC. The agreement between CNR and STFC’s ISIS facility was originally signed in 1985, making Italy one of the longest-standing partners of the research facility and this agreement was renewed yesterda.

IMAT officially became operational yesterday in the presence of His Excellency Pasquale Terracciano, Italian Ambassador in London, Corrado Spinella, Director of the Department of Physics of the Italian National Research Council (the CNR) and ISIS Neutron and Muon Source Director Robert McGreevy, in a celebration of the long-standing research partnership between the UK and Italy on work at the UK’s STFC ISIS facility in Oxfordshire.

Professor Robert McGreevy added: “We are delighted to be able to celebrate the inauguration of IMAT with our colleagues from CNR and Dr Terracciano. Our partnership with Italy has brought extensive benefits not just to our two countries but the wider scientific community.”

His Excellency Pasquale Terracciano, Italian Ambassador in London said: “This is a flagship European partnership of which both the UK and Italy can be proud. We look forward to the continued success of this partnership far into the future.”

Dr Corrado Spinella said: “It is wonderful to mark this milestone in the relationship between STFC and Italy. Continued access to the UK’s ISIS facility will be a key element of the Italian neutron research infrastructure strategy.”

Case Study 1 - The Science of an Iconic Sound

Antonio Stradivari (1644 - 1737) was one of the greatest luthiers of all time. His interpretation of geometry and design for the violin has served as a conceptual model for violin-makers for more than 300 years and yesterday a team of scientists from the Italian National Research Council CNR, Tarisio (London), Fondazione Pro Canale (Milan), University of Milano-Bicocca and University of Rome Tor Vergata, are investigating the craftsmanship of ancient Italian violins using neutron beams.

Stradivari violin in place on IMAT
(Credit: STFC)

The team wish to explore how the wood, only a few millimetres thick, was used to construct the instrument, and how small details in the finishing and varnishing processes influence the sound production. Due to their peculiar shape and high value, violins are difficult objects to study with standard analytical techniques. IMAT offers a non-destructive method by which the entire instrument can be imaged. These experiments form part of a wider project that aims to provide an integrated analysis of many musical instruments.

Carlo Chiesa, violin maker and expert from Fondazione Pro Canale said: “New analytical methods will help us understand and rediscover techniques that three or four centuries ago were common knowledge in the small community of Cremonese violin makers and allowed them to produce the small number of violins that are still unsurpassed for their acoustical properties.”

Prof Carla Andreani, who coordinates the Italian team on behalf of University Rome Tor Vergata added: “In a few months, with the combined images produced with the contribution of all the partners of the project, we will be able to complete the elemental analysis using neutron resonances at higher energies and tomography and using thermal neutrons, and provide more complete information on the inner structure and morphology of the Violins.”

Case Study 2 – Understanding the Egyptians

More than 3,000 years before Stradivari’s time, between 1425 and 1353 BC, the Egyptian nobel Kha was overseeing the building of tombs for the kings of ancient Egypt. Previously, all that was known about Kha was taken from his mud brick funerary chapel. That was until 1906, when an Italian archaeological mission discovered the shaft of Kha’s own tomb that had been sealed by a landslide. It was the richest and most complete non-royal burial assemblage ever found. Kha’s grave goods included coffin tunics, beds, vases and prestigious luxury objects inscribed with royal names, as well as alabaster containers, ceramic vessels and jars for food, oil powders and perfumes, some of which still remain sealed with their contents unknown.

Researchers positioning Egyptian grave goods in the IMAT instrument ready for testing
(Credit: STFC)

Now, a selection of the Egyptian artefacts taken from Kha’s tomb, including vases and alabasters, are being studied on IMAT by a team of Italian scientists from CNR, Museo Egizio in Turin, Museo Storico della Fisica e Centro Studi e Ricerche Enrico Fermi, University of Milano-Bicocca and University of Rome Tor Vergata. Using neutron beams, which have a high penetration power in metals, the team will find clues on the methods used by ancient Egyptians to make the bronze vases and pots, as well as the state of their conservation.

Christian Greco, Director of Museo Egiziosaid: “Eleven vases from the funerary goods of the tomb of Kha will be studied with the help of neutron beams in order to discover what is hidden inside these precious objects. It is an especially important initiative this year which marks the 110th anniversary of the discovery of the tomb of Kha by Ernesto Schiaparelli, dating back to 1916, because it represents an opportunity to offer to the public new data and useful new results about the objects belonging to our collection”.

Media contact

Corinne Mosese, STFC Press Officer
Corinne.mosese.stfc.ac.uk

Notes to Editors

IMAT details
The IMAT beamline is a new instrument at the Science Technology Facilities Council’s ISIS Neutron and Muon Source. It is the first instrument at ISIS capable of producing 3-dimensional images, revealing the inner workings of components across a wide range of science and technology areas.
The images produced by IMAT will have applications in the areas of aerospace and transportation, civil engineering, power generation, earth sciences, cultural heritage and agriculture. As neutrons can penetrate deeply into materials, IMAT will be capable of producing images of the internal structure of large engineering components. It will reveal, for example, the passage of lubricants and fuel through engine components, and the internal stresses and strains inside welded components.

IMAT was funded as part of an £21m investment in STFC’s ISIS neutron beam research facility from the UK governments Large Facilities Capital Fund. The IMAT imaging systems were developed in collaboration with Italian scientists funded through the Italian CNR research council and a neutron detector developed by a group at Berkeley, USA.
http://www.isis.stfc.ac.uk/Instruments/Imat/

STFC’s ISIS Neutron and Muon beam facility is a world-leading centre for research in the physical and life sciences based at the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory near Oxford in the United Kingdom. It has a suite of neutron and muon instruments giving unique insights into the properties of materials on the atomic scale. The facility supports a national and international community of more than 3000 scientists for research into subjects ranging from clean energy and the environment, pharmaceuticals and health care, through to nanotechnology and materials engineering, catalysis and polymers, and on to fundamental studies of materials.

The facility uses the technique of neutron scattering. Neutrons tell us where atoms are and how they are moving. By studying how materials work at the atomic level, we can better understand their every-day properties – and so make new materials tailor-made for particular uses. ISIS also produces muons for use in a similar way, providing additional information on how materials work at the atomic scale.
www.stfc.ac.uk