Chaos, long distance coincidences, etc in cosmic rays

From MariachiWiki

1 Long Distance Cosmic Ray Coincidences
2 Research Done On This Subject
3 Can Chaotic Patterns Be Used to Determine the Source of High Energy Cosmic Ray Showers?
4 References

Long Distance Cosmic Ray Coincidences

Long distance coincidences in cosmic ray detections have been disregarded since their discovery. Since the paths of ionized cosmic rays are deflected by the galaxy's complicated magnetic field during their long journey to the earth it has long been thought that their entrance into the Earth's atmosphere was random both in time and direction of approach.

In recent years, however, several groups have reported that they have detected similar events across large-scale distances. The procedure of analyzing correlating events is fairly easy and straightforward. Scientists simply search for cosmic ray pairs with very small arrival time differences and very small angular distances, observed between stations located at large distances from one another.

One group that has confronted this issue has been the Large Area Air Shower (LAAS) group, established in 1996 in Japan. Aiming at finding large-scale correlations in ultra-high energy cosmic rays, this group has searched for correlations in cosmic ray detections between distant stations. By comparing arrival times and arrival directions of all registered extensive air showers from five stations’ datasets during 1996– 2001, three moderately-significant correlating cosmic ray detections were found. Among them, a pair with a time difference of 184 μs and a very small angular distance of 6° was intriguingly detected from directions consistent with the Crab Nebula, a previously reported ultra-high-energy γ -ray source.

Despite the findings of the LAAS, the statistics and significance of their results are not enough to claim the detection of large-scale correlations, primarily due to the high-energy threshold and the poor angular accuracy of our arrays.

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Research Done On This Subject

High energy cosmic ray detection
This link discusses the coincidences of cosmic rays over long distances as to whether the coincidences originate from high energy cosmic rays or whether they are due to random occurances. The project was conducted in Japan from 1996-2003. The expriment consisted of three occurances where they observed the times and angles at which the particles hit the detectors.

Canadian Project
This link shows a project much like the MARIACHI project. The Canadians are setting up stations at different high schools, as we are on Long Island. This is helping to detect particles over long distences by setting up these detectors at schools 100's or 1000's of kilometers apart.

Theory of Splitting Simultaneous Detection

Cosmic rays which are coming towards the atmosphere strike charged particles and split. These charged split particles then further divide multiple times and strike the earth at the same time. These particles strike the Earth far distances apart from each other because of their split. The small angle at which they split could act over large distances because of the huge distance above the Earth(little or no information backing up this theory).Problems with this theory are that the charged particals decay away before they can even hit the ground. As shown in these simulations.
Simulation of a Cosmic Shower
Another Form of a Cosmic Shower

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Can Chaotic Patterns Be Used to Determine the Source of High Energy Cosmic Ray Showers?

Chaotic patterns have been found during the study of arrival time intervals of successive air showers. Chaos theory is the study of finding order in complex systems, orginated by Edward Lorenz in 1960 as he sought a way to predict the weather. He obtained a chaotic pattern by iteration of data in a function named the "Butterfly Effect." The complexity involved in analyzing weather a weather system is illustrated by connecting the beating of a butterfly's wings in Brazil to a tornedo in Texas. A recipe for chaos might be:

12 oz phase space
1 tablespoon of initial conditions
Stretch and fold repeatedly
Season to taste (1)

Chaotic dynamical systems are often associated with complex patterns that repeat forever within the system. These repeating patterns are called fractals.

A fractal pattern in nature(4)

Fractal generated by computer program(4)

The frequency distribution of the air shower arrival intervals (ASAT's) usually fits a Poisson distribution or random distribution. The LAAS group in Japan analyzed millions of events of energies greater that 3 x 10^14 eV, observed over a period of six years to measure this random distribution. However, ninety-nine chaotic patterns were observed during this time. There seems to be a correlation between the chaotic occurences in time over large distances. The fractal wave pattern observed could be explained by the nonlinear acceleration of the rays by magnetic fields encountered during the transit of the cosmic rays through the universe. By studying how far and the number of events per time, and energies, it is possible to estimate the origin of the event. They propose a model that suggests that the wavefront would be parallel to the earth's surface which would have been caused by an reacceleration that occurred in a magnetic field near the solar system. To confirm this, additional studies would need to be taken over from all over the world.