Speaker
Marco Garbini
(INFN Bologna)
Description
The EEE (Extreme Energy Events) Project is an experiment to study very
highenergy air showers through the detection of the muon component
using a network of tracking detectors, installed inside Italian High Schools.
The EEE project is supported by INFN, CERN, Ministero dell’Universit `a e
della Ricerca (MIUR), Centro Fermi and conceived by its leader Antonino
Zichichi. The single tracking telescope is composed by 3 Multi-gap Resistive
Plate Chambers (MRPCs), a large (2 m 2) and cheap version of the detector
designed for TOF measurements in the ALICE experiment at LHC. The
multiple small gas gaps, combined with the use of a high gain (α large, λ
small) and a fast gas mixture (Freon and SF6 based), provide a time
resolution < 100 ps. The particle tracking is performed equipping the MRPC
with 24 copper strips read at both ends by front-end electronic cards based
on the fast NINO Asic and using commercial multi-hit TDCs. The detectors
are built at CERN by High Schools students and teachers, shipped to Italy,
tested at INFN laboratories and finally installed in the schools. In the first
phase of the project the telescopes will be installed in 21 High Schools in 7
cities all over Italy. The network will soon be heavily upgraded. The first
telescope, recently installed in the Liceo B. Touschek in Grottaferrata
(Rome), is successfully running, opening the way for the first search of far
away coincidences over a total area of ∼ 10 6km2.
Author
Marco Garbini
(INFN Bologna)
