High-energy astrophysics with neutrino telescopes

Abstract

Neutrino astrophysics offers new perspectives on the Universe investigation: high energy neutrinos, produced by the most energetic phenomena in our Galaxy and in the Universe, carry complementary (if not exclusive) information about the cosmos with respect to photons. While the small interaction cross section of neutrinos allows them to come from the core of astrophysical objects, it is also a drawback, as their detection requires a large target mass. This is why it is convenient put huge cosmic neutrino detectors in natural locations, like deep underwater or under-ice sites. In order to supply for such extremely hostile environmental conditions, new frontiers technologies are under development. The aim of this work is to review the motivations for high energy neutrino astrophysics, the present status of experimental results and the technologies used in underwater/ice Cherenkov experiments, with a special focus on the efforts for the construction of a km 3 scale detector in the Mediterranean Sea. 1 2 T. Chiarusi and M. Spurio

Atmospheric muons: experimental aspects

“…However, when small-size experiments are carried out, the main uncertainty is the multiplicity of the muon bundle. In the case of large underwater experiments (like the running neutrino telescopes, Chiarusi and Spurio, 2010), they are optimised to look for upward-going neutrino induced particles. Atmospheric muons are seen with the "tail of the eyes" (the photomultipliers inside optical modules), where large uncertainties on the optical module angular acceptance do not allow a precision measurements.…”

Status of Searches for Magnetic Monopoles

“…Baikal [68], AMANDA [69], ANTARES [70], IceCube [71], and in the future KM3NeT are usually denoted as neutrino telescopes [72]. Due to the Cherenkov mechanism, a huge quantity of visible Cherenkov light would be emitted by a M with β > c/n = 0.75, where n = 1.33 is the refractive index of water [73].…”

The trigger and data acquisition for the NEMO-Phase 2 tower

“…The NEMO project [1] of INFN was dedicated to studying the technical issues of a cubic kilometre neutrino telescope in the Mediterranean Sea [2]. In March 2013 the deployment of a prototype Detection Unit (DU) in the abyssal site of Portopalo di Capo Passero has been completed.…”