J (Dec 2021)

Search for Multi-Coincidence Cosmic Ray Events over Large Distances with the EEE MRPC Telescopes

  • Marcello Abbrescia,
  • Carlo Avanzini,
  • Luca Baldini,
  • Rinaldo Baldini Ferroli,
  • Giovanni Batignani,
  • Marco Battaglieri,
  • Stefano Boi,
  • Edoardo Bossini,
  • Francesca Carnesecchi,
  • Corrado Cicalò,
  • Luisa Cifarelli,
  • Fabrizio Coccetti,
  • Eugenio Coccia,
  • Alessandro Corvaglia,
  • Daniele De Gruttola,
  • Salvatore De Pasquale,
  • Franco Fabbri,
  • Lorenzo Galante,
  • Marco Garbini,
  • Gianluca Gemme,
  • Ivan Gnesi,
  • Stefano Grazzi,
  • Despina Hatzifotiadou,
  • Paola La Rocca,
  • Zhang Liu,
  • Giuseppe Mandaglio,
  • Gaetano Maron,
  • Mario Nicola Mazziotta,
  • Alice Mulliri,
  • Rosario Nania,
  • Francesco Noferini,
  • Francesco Nozzoli,
  • Federico Palmonari,
  • Marco Panareo,
  • Maria Paola Panetta,
  • Riccardo Paoletti,
  • Carmelo Pellegrino,
  • Ombretta Pinazza,
  • Chiara Pinto,
  • Silvia Pisano,
  • Francesco Riggi,
  • Giancarlo Righini,
  • Cristina Ripoli,
  • Matteo Rizzi,
  • Gabriella Sartorelli,
  • Eugenio Scapparone,
  • Marco Schioppa,
  • Angelo Scribano,
  • Marco Selvi,
  • Gabriella Serri,
  • Sandro Squarcia,
  • Marco Taiuti,
  • Giuseppe Terreni,
  • Antonio Trifirò,
  • Marina Trimarchi,
  • Cristina Vistoli,
  • Lucia Votano,
  • Crispin Williams,
  • Antonino Zichichi,
  • Roman Zuyeuski

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/j4040057
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 4, no. 4
pp. 838 – 848

Abstract

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The existence of independent, yet time correlated, Extensive Air Showers (EAS) has been discussed over the past years, with emphasis on possible physical mechanisms that could justify their observation. The detector network of the Extreme Energy Events (EEE) Collaboration, with its approximately 60 cosmic ray telescopes deployed over the Italian territory, has the potential to search for such events, employing different analysis strategies. In this paper, we have analyzed a set of EEE data, corresponding to an approximately five month observation period, searching for multi-coincidence events among several far telescopes, within a time window of 1 ms. Events with up to 12 coincident telescopes have been observed. Results were compared to expectations from a random distribution of events and discussed with reference to the relativistic dust grain hypothesis.

Keywords