Active interrogation of underground piezoelectric fabrics using high energy muon beams propagating across seismogenic faults

In this paper we extend further a previous analysis (Ref.[1]) of a newly conceived technique applying active interrogation of the tectonic stress evolution in regions hosting active seismogenic faults: the aim is to monitor and detect stable and reliable precursors signals on an adequate time scale, well before the earthquake event, that can play a crucial role in activate alarms to the civil protection system.The precursor signal is based on a continuous measurement of the time evolution of the tectonic stress, realized by interrogating underground, with a high energy collimated muon beam, the piezoelectric fabrics present in granite-like rocks rich in quartz, around a known seismogenic fault region in the Earth's crust.The beam propagation through the rock, in the region across the active fault, brings to the detector, located at the exit of the rock traversal, informations about the amplitude of the piezoelectric field, which in turns scales like the tectonic stress applied to the quartz crystals embedded in the rock.The system named ERMES (Earthquake Reconnaissance using Muon beam Evolution in Silicon dioxide), instead of detecting electromagnetic waves/signals generated by the piezoelectricity and propagating outside the Earth's crust, as foreseen in other techniques presently under study, it actually probes the piezoelectricity effects from inside the source of the associated electro-magnetic field.It actually probes the near field inside quartz crystals instead of the far field in open space outside the Earth's crust.Here we present a more focused analysis on the manipulation of the muon beam after the rock layer traversal, before reaching the beam detector, using a newly conceived muonic lens, and we explore the maximum capability of rock penetration by the high energy muon beam, in the range of about 3 kilometers of rock thickness for 10 TeV muon beam energy.Because of the peculiarity of the scenario analysed, in terms of muon beam propagation in such a very thick (km long) target, we carried out cross checks of our previous montecarlo simulations, performed with Fluka, using also GEANT4to better clarify the role of secondary muons generated in the interaction of primary muons with the matter in such a long propagation length in solid matter.