Journal of Modern Mathematics Frontier Volume 2 Issue 3, September 2013

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A Stochastic Process to Explain the Turin

Shroud Body Image Formation
Giovanni Fazio*
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Catania, 95123 Catania, Italy
Dipartimento di Fisica e di Scienze della Terra dellUniversit di Messina, 98166 Messina, Italy
*

gfazio@unime.it

Abstract
In this paper, a natural mechanism capable to explain the
Shroud body image formation has been studied. The
physical and chemical characteristics of the above image
agree with a stochastic process triggered by a little quantity
of energy that has yielded a latent image. This mechanism is
the sole that can explain both the reversed color
characteristic and the 3D reconstruction without distortion
of the above image. Therefore, the other mechanisms
(deterministic processes) must be rejected.

Chapelle of Chambery. Here, in 1532, a fire caused the

above cited scorched and burned areas. Successively,
in 1983, Humbert II of Savoy gave the Linen to the
Roman Catholic Church. Actually, the Archbishop of
Turin is the Pontifical Custodian of the Shroud. It is
underlined that this cloth is very important because
many people believe that it is the burial one of Jesus of
Nazareth even nowadays. On the other hand, for
others, it is a forgery of the Middle Ages.

Keywords
Linen of Turin; Mechanism of the Body Image Formation;
Stochastic Process

Introduction
The Shroud of Turin is an ancient cloth where the
front- and back-image of a tortured, scourged and
crucified man appears (Jumper et al., 1984). The body
image is an uneven superficial discoloration due to the
oxidation and dehydration of the linen cellulose
structure with formation of conjugated carbonyls
(chromopheres) that have colored the fibrils (Heller
and Adler, 1981).
In details, this linen cloth (~ 4.36 m length x ~1.10 m
width), preserved in the Turin Cathedral, shows a
male with wounds on the forehead, nape, wrist, feet
and chest and scourge marks are present everywhere
but especially over the legs and torso area. Moreover,
burned and scorched areas and holes due to the
combustion of linen at high temperature in a limited
oxygen environment (1532 Chambery fire) and water
marks, due to its extinguishing, appear (Figure 1). The
last tracks have an evident contour made of dusts and
impurity.
This ancient cloth has a history confirmed from the
middle of the 14th Century when it was in possession
of the Count Geoffrey de Charney in Lirey, France. In
synthesis, in 1432 it was ceded to the Duke Ludwig I
of Savoy who from 1502 placed it in the Sainte

FIG. 1 FRONTAL IMAGE ON THE SHROUD OF TURIN

In this paper, the formation mechanism of the body

image has been investigated, because the knowledge
of such a mechanism is the main goal of the research
on the Linen of Turin.
In 1898, Secondo Pia, for the first time, photographed
the Shroud showing the reversed color of the obtained
image. Consequently, many formation mechanisms
have been suggested. For example, in order to prove

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Journal of Modern Mathematics Frontier Volume 2 Issue 3, September 2013

that the image was an artifact, painting, printing,

rubbing or a chemically structure modification (scorch,
chemically-induced modification) have been proposed.
On the other hand, to demonstrate that the Linen of
Turin was a Shroud, the Vignon vapor graphic theory
or the Pellicori-German latent image model were
proposed. However, all these hypotheses, together
with the other not quoted in this paper, have not been
able to explain the body image formation.
In the XXI Century, other formation mechanisms
appeared in literature by:

attempts made to obtain a fake that was in the

possibility of a medieval artist (Garlaschelli,
2010),

different experiments with UV radiation

(Baldacchini et al. , 2008; Di Lazzaro et al., 2010)
or corona discharge (Fanti, 2010 and 2011).

been yellowed (all with the same value of optical

density) from the ones that must maintain the
background color.
Consequently, it appears clearly in terms of the
insurmountable difficulty to demonstrate that the
image on the Linen of Turin is a fake product in the
Europe of the Middle Ages. Moreover, these attempts
(using pigments and thermic treatment) do not take
into account that the blood image formation has
preceded the body image formation. Indeed, the
presence of blood stains predisposed on the fabric
before the above experiments should be damaged
(Jackson et al., 1984).

The hypothesis of fake is reasonable. Indeed, the

Shroud appeared in about the middle of the 14th
Century when in Europe an infinity of objects related
to the Nazarene was present. However, all the
attempts made to demonstrate that the above Linen is
a forgery have been rejected because they failed to
explain the physical and chemical characteristics of the
body image. Also the mechanisms of Shroud body
image formation by UV radiation or corona discharge
must be discarded because a human body cannot emit
the above radiation or generate an electrostatic field.
These are utopias and the experimental sciences have
not the instruments to study the above hypotheses.
Analysis
The difficulty to understand the Shroud body image
formation is due to the distribution of the fibrils (10-15
m each) that yielded the above image. These fibrils,
with the same value of optical density, are present
only in the areas where the body image lies and are
mixed with the background one with a lower value of
optical density (Pellicori and Evans, 1981). It is
underlined that the last fibrils can hold a soft variation
in the optical density values typical of the fabrics
exposed to light and/or heat. Moreover, the more
yellowed ones penetrate in the fabric in depth of 20-30
m while the others, that have the background color,
involve the whole thickness (~365 m) of the linen
(Weaver, 1980; Mottern et al., 1980). In other words,
the body image floats on the fabric. Therefore, the
variation of image intensity (e. g., the forehead is
darker than the neck) is related to the density of the
yellowed fibrils. Consequently, the hypothesized
mechanisms must distinguish the fibrils that have

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FIG. 2 3D RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SHROUD FRONTAL

IMAGE

On the Shroud, as affirmed, in the region where the

body image lies, there are fibrils with background
color together with fibrils that have a greater optical
density value. These last yellowed fibrils, that have
yielded the image are, numerically, distributed with a
maximum value in the areas with cloth-body distance
z = 0 (contact regions) and then decrease, as a linear
regression, when the z value increases. Consequently,
the Image intensity versus the cloth-body distance z is
a linear function (Jackson et al., 1984; Fazio, 1996) that
can be written as linear regression:
I(z)= Ib + I0 (1-z/R0)
(1)
where Ib is the image intensity of background color, Ib
+ I0 the intensity in the contact areas and R0 the cloth-

Journal of Modern Mathematics Frontier Volume 2 Issue 3, September 2013

body distance value which gives I(R0)= Ib. For the

frontal image, the R0 parameter is 3.7 cm (Jackson et al.,
1984). This result displays that in the image region
there is codified information of the cloth-body
distance as appeared in the 3D reconstruction of the
frontal image (Fig. 2).

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contact regions and zero when the cloth-body distance

is R0. For this last value of z, the fibrils have only the
background color.

Obviously, as well the absorbed energy for unit of

surface of the fabric that yielded the above distribution
has an analogous trend. In the regions of cloth-body,
contact is the maximum (as occurrence of the above
intensity of image) and then decreases, as linear
regression, when the z value increases (Fazio and
Mandaglio, 2011). Therefore, for the energy, the
function can be written as:
E(z)= Eb + E0 (1-z/R0)
(2)
where Eb is the average energy value per unit area
received by electromagnetic radiation, Eb + E0 is the
energy per unit area in the contact regions and R0 the
cloth - body distance which gives E(R0) = Eb. In the
formula (2) the contribution is due to the
electromagnetic radiation (Eb) and the interaction
between human body and linen cloth (E0 (1-z/R0)).
Nowadays, there are several scientists that still believe
in the radiative mechanisms for the formation of the
above image without taking into account these
deterministic hypotheses are not able to discriminate
the fibrils yellowed from the ones maintaining the
background color. These scientists, in their
experiments can penetrate the linen for a depth of 2030 m, as it is for the Shroud body image. This
thickness can be obtained because it is possible for a
deterministic process. On the contrary, the choice of
the fibrils that must be yellowed to yield the image is
impossible for the above mechanism. Therefore, it is
necessary to introduce a stochastic process.
The stochastic ones are mechanisms known for the
following characteristics:
a) they are triggered by a little quantity of energy,
b) they have not a threshold to appear,
c)

the effects have time of latency of the order of

many years,

d) they are absent just when the energy is zero.

These processes appear when the probability to have
an event is proportional to the received energy and
when the above events are produced with the same
intensity. In this case the above probability can be
written as:
p = k(1-z/R0)
(3)
where k is a constant; p value is maximum in the

FIG.3 NEGATIVE PHOTOGRAPH OF THE FRONTAL IMAGE ON

THE SHROUD OF TURIN

The distribution of the yellowed fibrils, that is

undoubtedly stochastic, certifies that a weak energy
has been transferred from the body to the linen
triggering the above process. Consequently, the image
has been yielded in a few decades. Therefore, there is
no miracle or forgery. In other words, before the
formation of the Shroud body image, all the fibrils had
the background color. Successively, regarding the
human body-cloth interaction (e.g., after a few
decades), many fibrils (in line with the correlation
between image intensity and cloth-body distance)
increased the optical density yielding the above image.
The result of the stochastic mechanism is a density of
the yellowed fibrils (the one that has yielded the body
image) that must be represented by a linear function
type:
d = d0 (1-z/R0)
(4)
where d0 is the density value in the contact regions
and R0 is the same parameter that appears in the
formulas (1), (2) and (3). In this way, there is nothing
unusual about the reversed color of the Shroud image
(Figure 3) and 3D reconstruction (Figure 2)
characteristics. This is the result of the action of the
stochastic process that has yielded a correlation
between image intensity and cloth-body distance. The
physical and chemical characteristics of body image
are connected with the above distribution of the

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Journal of Modern Mathematics Frontier Volume 2 Issue 3, September 2013

yellowed fibrils.

Turin Shroud image, Journal of Imaging Science of

Now, there is the question to locate the source of

energy: it is believed that the triggering of this process
might be due to the emission of thermic energy (Fazio
and Mandaglio, 2011), possible for an human body,
and the low-temperature chemical processes between
reducing sugars and amine with the aim to yield the
conjugated carbonyls that color the fibrils (Rogers and
Arnoldi, 2003). Unfortunately, for a stochastic process,
it is impossible to distinguish among different sources
of energy that are able to trigger the above mechanism.
However, the result is very interesting because it can
explain the Shroud body image formation, that is, it is
a latent image yielded by a natural phenomenon.

Technology, vol. 54, pp. 040302-1-6, 2010.

Conclusions
In this article, a stochastic process has been
hypothesized for the comprehension of the body
image formation, then the physical and chemical
characteristics of the Shroud image explained by the
above mechanism have been demonstrated.
Moreover, the coexistence of the blood image with the
body image has been resolved. Indeed, while the
blood stains match with a wounded human body
enveloped in the Linen of Turin, the body image is not
in line with this hypothesis that a man can leave tracks
containing codified information on the cloth-body
distance. The stochastic process is the sole that
overcomes this apparent discrepancy and explains the
coexistence of the blood stains with the body image.
All the other deterministic processes show great
difficulty in the attempts to explain the Shroud body
image. Therefore, they must be discarded.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The author would like to express appreciation to her

wife Antonella for the support and encouragement
and to the Prof. Patrizia De Leo for the improvement
in the English language.
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