S. Aiola

A multigap resistive plate chamber array for the Extreme Energy Events project

The Extreme Energy Events (EEE) Project is a Centro Fermi - CERN - INFN - MIUR Collaboration Project for the study of extremely high energy cosmic rays, which exploits the Multigap Resistive Plate Chamber (MRPC) technology. The excellent time resolution and good tracking capability of this kind of detector allows us to study Extensive Air Showers (EAS) with an array of MRPC telescopes distributed across the Italian territory. Each telescope is installed in a high school, with the further goal to introduce students to particle and astroparticle Physics. The status of the experiment and the results obtained are reported.

The EEE Project: cosmic rays, multigap resistive plate chambers and high school students

The Extreme Energy Events Project has been designed to join the scientific interest of a cosmic rays physics experiment with the enormous didactic potentiality deriving from letting it be carried out by high school students and teachers. After the initial phase, the experiment is starting to take data continuously, and the first interesting physics results have been obtained, demonstrating the validity of the idea of running a real physics investigation in these peculiar conditions. Here an overview of its structure and status is presented, together with some studies about detector performance and first physics results.

The EEE Project: Cosmic rays, multigap resistive plate chambers and high school students

The Extreme Energy Events Project has been designed to join the scientific interest of a cosmic rays physics experiment with the enormous didactic potentiality deriving from letting it be carried out by high school students and teachers. After the initial phase, the experiment is starting to take data continuously, and the first interesting physics results have been obtained, demonstrating the validity of the idea of running a real physics investigation in these peculiar conditions. Here an overview of its structure and status is presented, together with some studies about detector performance and first physics results.

Detection of extensive cosmic air showers by small scintillation detectors with wavelength-shifting fibres

A set of three small scintillation detectors was employed to measure correlated events due to the passage of cosmic muons originating from extensive air showers. The coincidence rate between (any) two detectors was extracted as a function of their relative distance. The difference between the arrival times in three non-aligned detectors was used to reconstruct the orientation of the shower axis.

Shielding effects of a building structure on the energy deposit of cosmic rays in a simple wavelength shifter-based scintillator

An experimental setup, based on a plastic scintillator with an embedded wavelength shifter fibre and photosensors at the two ends, has been used to detect cosmic muons in undergraduate laboratory activities. Time and amplitude information from the two photosensors were measured using the time-over-threshold technique. The distribution of the energy deposit in the scintillator was measured under different shielding conditions in the same building and evaluated by simple calculations. A GEANT simulation taking into account the angular distribution of the incoming muons, the shielding material above the setup and the response of the detector was also compared to the data.

Advanced detection techniques for educational experiments in cosmic ray physics

In this paper we describe several detection techniques that can be employed to study cosmic ray properties and carry out training activities at high school and undergraduate level. Some of the proposed devices and instrumentation are inherited from professional research experiments, while others were especially developed and marketed for educational cosmic ray experiments. The educational impact of experiments in cosmic ray physics in high-school or undergraduate curricula will be exploited through various examples, going from simple experiments carried out with small Geiger counters or scintillation devices to more advanced detection instrumentation which can offer starting points for not trivial research work.