Speaker
Dr
Ivan Gnesi
(Fermi Center & INFN LNF Cosenza)
Description
EEE is an extended cosmic ray observatory, composed by 59 MRPC-based tracking telescopes, spread over more than 10 degrees in latitude and longitude.
Several sites host two or more telescopes in the same town, as local clusters, capable of detecting high energy cosmic showers.
The relative distances between the 12 existing clusters range between 86 and 1200 km, allowing the search for rare long distance correlations between cosmic showers. On the other side each EEE telescope is capable of measuring the flux of secondary particles, opening to the study of low energy phenomena such as solar activity and Forbush decreases. The EEE observatory is aiming also to investigate the relation between the cosmic ray flux and the environmental parameters on Earth. During summer 2018 a first measurement campaign was performed by the PolarQuest expedition to the Svalbard islands; a sailboat was equipped with a SiPM-readout scintillator-based detector with the purpose of mapping the low energy cosmic ray flux up to 82 degrees in latitude.
The EEE is undergoing a continuous extension and upgrade program, in order to maximize the time exposure and optimize the detection efficiency and the tuning of the stations. New trigger/GPS boards, a set of 42 improved chambers with 250 micron gas gaps and new gas mixtures studies are among the several ongoing activities for enhancing the discovery capabilities of the experiment.
The presentation will give and overview of the scientific results as well as of the upgrade activities and technological improvements focused on maximizing the EEE observatory discovery potential.
Primary author
Dr
Ivan Gnesi
(Fermi Center & INFN LNF Cosenza)
