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In this paper, we consider the problem of cooperative spectrum sensing scheduling (C3S) in a cognitive radio network (CRN) when there exist multiple primary channels. Our work focuses on a scenario in which each secondary user (SU) has the freedom to decide whether to participate in cooperative spectrum sensing; if not, the SU becomes a free rider. Such a mechanism can conserve the energy for spectrum sensing at a risk of sacrificing the spectrum sensing performance. To overcome this problem, we address the following two questions: “Which action (contributing to spectrum sensing or not) should be taken?” and “which channel should be sensed?” We model our framework as an evolutionary game in which each SU makes its decision based on its utility history and takes an action more frequently if it brings a relatively higher utility. We also develop a coalition formation algorithm based on the channel status, where each SU always chooses the coalition that brings the most information regarding the status of the corresponding channel. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme can guarantee the detection probability at a low false alarm rate. The results also indicate that our algorithm can satisfy different requirements by carefully tuning the system parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]