The Cosmic Ray Observatory Project (CROP): Exploring Cosmic Ray Showers in Nebraska

1. The Cosmic Ray Observatory Project (CROP): An outreach and education experiment in Nebraska Funded by a $1,342,000 grant from the National Science Foundation Teacher Enhancement Program and High Energy Physics A high school based Pierre Auger Observatory

2. Where is Nebraska? Fermilab Batavia, Illinois State of Nebraska Pierre Auger northern hemisphere site in Utah

3. CROP Project Goals • Educational • Prepare teams of high school teachers and students to get involved • in studies of extended cosmic ray showers using modern research • techniques. • 4-week summer intensive training program at UNL • Biweekly phone conferences or chat rooms • Two 1-day meetings every year • Web-based help pages • Scientific • Build a statewide network of cosmic ray detectors. • Retired CASA detectors in weather-proof enclosures on roof • GPS receiver gives local time stamp for shower arrival • PC inside school takes data through a DAQ card at each site • Student teams share data over Internet searching for time coincidences • Search for the sources of ultra-high energy cosmic rays.

4. CROP Personnel at UNL, 2003 • CROP staff at University of Nebraska • Faculty: Dan Claes and Greg Snow • Educational evaluator: Dr. Duane Shell • Physics graduate student: Aidyl Galafa • September 2002, Computer Science • graduate students: • Steve Becker: Programming of • DAQ card • Jared Kite: LabView control screen • for DAQ card • Cory Strope: Computer simulations • of cosmic ray air showers • January 2003 • Secondary science ed graduate student: Tracie Evans • Undergraduate research assistants: M. Dennsberger, M. Everett, • A. Fuchser, P. Jacobson, A. Kubik, D. Larsen, S. Mahoney • Administrative Secretary: Marilyn McDowell • Lab manager: High school teacher, John Rogers Summer 2003

5. CROP article in Lincoln Journal Star, 7 August 2003

6. Coleridge Mullen Loup Spalding McPherson The Cosmic Ray Observatory Project A grid of cosmic ray research stations expanding across the state 250 miles 450 miles CROP schools enlisted in 2000 2001 2002 2003

7. High school teams attend a 4-week summer workshop at UNL with class and lab activities 2000: Lincoln Zoo, Lincoln Northeast, Mt. Michael, Marian, Norfolk 2002: Fairbury, Wayne, Roncalli Catholic, Bancroft-Rosalie, Waterloo … and new schools will be enlisted in CROP each year 2001: Lincoln Lutheran, Lincoln High, Omaha Westside, Anselmo-Merna, Osceola, Wayne State College 2003: Coleridge, Loup, McPherson, Mullen, Spalding,

8. The Chicago Air Shower Array • CROPuses retired detectors from theChicago Air Shower Array • 1089 boxes each with: • 4 scintillators and photomultiplier tubes (PMT) • 1 high voltage and 1 low voltage power supply • Two removal trips (September 1999, May 2001) yielded over • 2000 scintillator panels, 2000 PMTs, 500 low and power supplies • Sufficient hardware for all Nebraska high schools

9. The CROP team at Chicago Air Shower Array (CASA) site September 30, 1999 U.S. Army Photo

10. Equipment recovery trip to Dugway, Utah, May 2001

11. The Science of CROP • Each school records building-sized showers -- plenty of rate. • 2500 ft2 shower (1014 eV ) • Neighboring schools in same city (Lincoln, Omaha) see coincidences • from highest-energy showers -- low rate. • 10 sq.mi shower ~1019 eV • 50 sq.mi shower ~1020 eV • Nebraska is 450 x 250 square miles -- schools separated by very • large distances explore whether showers come in large, • correlated bursts • That is, does the whole state of Nebraska ever light up?

12. The Cosmic Ray Energy Spectrum Cosmic Ray Flux (1 particle per m2 per sec) (1 particle per m2 per year) The Science Reach of CROP City-sized showers Building-sized showers (1 particle per km2 per year) Energy (eV)

13. CROP can also search for coincidences over large distances Size of Pierre Auger site, 1600 detectors 250 miles 450 miles Does the whole state ever light up at once?

14. Possible Source of Coincident,Widely-Separated Showers The GZ Effect (Gerasimova-Zatsepin) Cosmic ray iron nucleus • Watson and Medina-Tanco • revisit this 1960-predicted • phenomenon in • astro-ph/9808033 • Calculation for 6 × 1017 eV • Fe  Mn + proton • Shower separations of • 100’s to 1000’s of kilometers • possible, dominated by • deflections by interplanetary • magnetic fields • Rates not encouraging Optical photon from the sun Nuclear fragments from photo-disintegration Earth’s Surface

15. Lab Curriculum • Polishing, cleaning scintillator • Gluing PMT and wrapping scintillator • Assembling high-voltage supply • Oscilloscope lesson • Turning on counters, source tests, finding/fixing light leaks • Measure counter efficiency, high voltage plateau • Class Curriculum • History of cosmic rays • Interaction of charged particles with matter • Scintillators and photomultiplier tubes • Cosmic ray energy spectrum • Julian calendar, UTM, galactic coordinates • Global positioning system • Ionizing particle detectors • Calorimeters and showering • Particle zoo and the Standard Model • Tour of high-energy particle accelerators • Random events, probability • Monte Carlo simulations • Lightning protection Curriculum Topics Available Preparing detectors to take to your schools, experimental techniques Learning the physics of cosmic rays and particle detectors What we expect to accomplish in 4 weeks

16. Incident light from scintillator Photomultiplier Tubes Photocathode Schematic drawing of a photomultiplier tube Photons eject electrons via photoelectric effect Each incident electron ejects about 4 new electrons at each dynode stage Vacuum inside tube An applied voltage difference between dynodes makes electrons accelerate from stage to stage “Multiplied” signal comes out here

17. CROP teachers and students gain valuable hands-on experience in bona fide research Participants learn oscilloscope use and build electronics Students refurbish and assemble their own detectors before installing them at school Marian High School’s measurement of cosmic ray rate vs. barometric pressure Students present results in conference-style meetings at UNL Number of cosmic rays detected Student team at Lincoln’s Zoo School with their detectors Increasing barometric pressure

18. Endless scraping, polishing, and soldering

19. Endless wrapping, taping, and observing

20. Endless cabling and adjusting

21. Pre-workshop and Post-workshop testing Positive outcomes-assessment results from professional evaluator

22. Detectors in a vertical “telescope” Mini-experiments • Coincidence rate vs. barometric • pressure • Day-night variation of cosmic • ray rate • Coincidence rate vs. angle of • incidence • Coincidence rate vs. vertical • separation

23. 1 2 Detectors 3 4 PIN ON PIN Electronics Configuration for Telescope

24. Detector set-ups at schools “Telescope” set-ups for indoor experiments

25. 4200 4-Fold Coincidences / 2 hours 3000 727 747 Barometric Pressure (mmHg) Marian High School’s Measurement of Cosmic Ray Rate vs. Barometric Pressure • Statistical error bars shown • 1.3% decrease per mmHg

26. Mount Michael High School “The Science Teacher”, November 2001

27. Event counter CROP data acquisition electronics card Developed by Univ. Nebraska, Fermilab (Quarknet), Univ. Washington Programmable logic device Time-to-digital converters To PC serial port GPS receiver input Four analog PMT inputs 5 Volt DC power • 43 Mhz (24 nsec) clock interpolates • between 1 pps GPS ticks for trigger time • TDC’s give relative times of 4 inputs with • 75 psec resolution Discriminator threshold adjust

28. User-friendly, LabView-based control and monitoring GUI Event counter Elapsed run time Two detectors firing at the same time Data stream for each event

29. Students familiarizing themselves with data-acquisition card and PC

30. Students familiarizing themselves with data-acquisition card and PC

31. Rooftop mini-experiments for CROP Schools • With counters spread out in horizontal plane • 2/4, 3/4, 4/4 coincidence rates vs. detector • separation • Different configurations (square, triangle • as shown) • Optimization of counter geometry on • school rooftop • Singles rates vs. rainfall • Simultaneous data taking with other schools 3 2 1 1 1 2 2 3 3

32. Coincidence Rates vs. Separation Experiment October – December 2002 4 detectors on corners of a square 15 meter (45 feet) separation shown Installation on Physics Department roof, February 2002 15 m 15 m 15 m

33. 15 ft, 1 lead Touching 15 ft, 2 lead 4-fold counts/ hour 45 ft 15 ft 30 ft Days since October 1, 2002 4-fold Coincidence Ratesvs. Separation Rates high enough to sustain student interest

34. Presently taking data simultaneously at 3 sites Lincoln High School rooftop • 21 schools received data-acquisition cards • at September 27 meeting at UNL • All schools start taking data this semester

35. NALTA The North American Large-Scale Time-Coincidence Array WALTA ALTA SALTA CROP SCROD • http://csr.phys.ualberta.ca/nalta/ • Includes links to individual project • Web pages Pierre Auger northern hemisphere site in Utah CHICOS

36. SALTA: Snowmass Area Large Time-Coincidence Array Initiated during Snowmass 2001 Future of HEP Conference • Colorado • Aspen High School, Aspen, CO • Basalt High School, Basalt, CO • Roaring Fork Valley High School, • Carbondale, CO • Lake County High School, • Leadville, CO • The highest-elevation school • in the U.S. -- 10,152 feet ASL • Illinois • Wheaton North High School, • Wheaton, IL

37. Replica of Hess’ Electroscope Portable Geiger Counters Wilkes in Hessian Outfit

38. Crowd gathers to watch Victor Hess flight reenactment Lift off ! Unicorn Balloon Company, Snowmass, CO Data transmitted live to ground via radio

39. Ground level at Snowmass • Two flights with consistent • results • Hovered at 1000 ft increments • in altitude for 5 minutes • Cosmic ray rates measured • with portable Geiger counters • Same effects observed • by Victor Hess • See FermiNews, July 27, 2001

40. The Washington-Area Large-Scale Time-Coincidence Array http://www.phys.washington.edu/~walta • CROP’s closest relative • Run by University of Washington, Seattle • Jeff Wilkes, et al. • WALTA also uses refurbished CASA detectors Seattle area map showing schools

41. Los Angeles Area Schools (Animation by L.A. school teacher) • Institutions • LA area schools • California Institute of Technology • California State University, Northridge • University of California, Irvine • Funding • Caltech • NSF Nuclear Physics

42. 164 detector stations recovered • 2 detectors per school foreseen • About 39 schools in process • of being outfitted

43. Conclusions on CROP * CROP, in its 4th year, will soon reach a major milestone: Simultaneous data-taking at all schools, offline searches for extensive air shower coincidences * Other emerging efforts will enable the NALTA consortium to search for very long-range correlations * Curriculum, hardware, software has been developed to facilitate the start-up of new efforts

44. QuarkNet continues to grow in the U.S. http://quarknet.fnal.gov • Nationwide program which links high energy • physicists with teams of local high school • physics teachers to engage in active research • projects • Funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation • and Department of Energy, project office at • Fermilab • In its 5th year, QuarkNet centers established in • 29states involving over 400 teachers and their • students U.S. QuarkNet sites • Wide range of ongoing activities, examples: • Hardware: CMS hadron calorimeter optical decoder units, PMT testing and database • Analysis: Using distilled Tevatron data, Z mass peak reconstruction, top quark decay kinematics • Growing emphasis on local cosmic ray studies with various techniques: scintillators, Geiger • counters, proportional tubes • Ongoing work to disseminate activities developed at a given site to all QuarkNet participants

45. Some QuarkNet Activities CMS phototube test setup (Univ. Iowa) Extensive air shower array at University of Washington Counting cosmic ray muons on top of Sears Tower in Chicago (Univ. Illinois, Chicago)

46. CROP, QuarkNet, and many other U.S. Education/Outreach programs are summarized in the booklet “Particle Physics Education and Outreach 2001” Available at http://www-ed.fnal.gov/hep/home.html

47. Education/Outreach Committee of the American Physical Society’s Division of Particles and Fields (formed 2003) • Members: Liz Simmons (chair), Michael Barnett, Marcela Carena, • Judy Jackson, Harrison Prosper, Randy Ruchti, Jim Siegrist, Greg Snow • Activities: • Feed info on EPO efforts to Interactions.org web site • coordinated by all HEP labs worldwide • Advocate for EPO plenary talks at future DPF meetings to educate wider • community and get more people involved • Coordinate widely dispersed EPO efforts of each HEP experiment to • establish communication, avoid duplication of materials and activities • development • Provide guidance and “best practices” to investigators writing the • now-required EPO part of their NSF and DoE base funding proposals • Contribute to planning of U.S. activities in 2005 World Year of Physics

48. “Einstein in the 21st Century” World Year of Physics 2005in the United States • Planned Projects • Poster Contest • Interactive Website • PhysicsQuest • Public Lectures • Physics on the Road • APS Meeting Events • Distributed Computing Project

49. Planned Projects: Poster Contest • Nationwide poster contest aimed at U.S. 5th graders (generally aged 10). There are ~4,000,000 U.S. students. • Theme: “Einstein in Everyday Life” contest instructions will be accompanied by lessons and activities that fit in with national science and history guidelines for U.S. 5th graders. • Winning poster nationwide will be made into a promotional poster for WYP2005; distributed to U.S. schools.

50. Planned Projects: PhysicsQuest • Fictional physics “mystery” aimed at U.S. middle school students (generally aged 11-13). There are ~12,000,000 such students. • Students will receive an “evidence kit” they will use to solve the mystery. • “Clues” will be available online. • Involves students in the process of using science to solve problems.