History of acoustic neutrino detection

Abstract

The historic development of acoustic neutrino detection is shortly reviewed from early ideas starting in the 1950s to current experiments. The article concludes with an assessment of the current status of the field and outlook to the future, as perceived by the author, and with an emphasis on activities in the Mediterranean Sea.

High-energy and ultra-high-energy neutrinos: A Snowmass white paper

“…Neutrino detection via acoustic signals generated by UHE neutrino interactions in water or solids [613,614] have also been pursued (see e.g., [615,616] and references therein).…”

The Antares And Km3Net Neutrino Telescopes: Status And Outlook For Acoustic Studies

“…As discussed earlier in this contribution, the good acoustic properties of seawater have been exploited by undersea neutrino telescopes to monitor the position of the detector elements, as a crucial ingredient to their tracking performances. Seawater has also been advocated as a promising medium for the detection of acoustic pressure pulses generated by the interaction of ultra-high energy (> 100 PeV) neutrinos [11]. The accelerated expansion of the heated volume around the interaction point forms a pressure pulse of bipolar shape, which propagates in the surrounding medium as a flat disk-like volume (or "pancake") perpendicular to the axis of the particle shower, with a peak frequency around 10 kHz.…”

Hydrophone characterization for the KM3NeT experiment

“…KM3NeT will therefore be one of the largest neutrino telescopes in terms of detection volume and number of sensors. Because each module includes a hydrophone it is interesting to assess the potential of KM3NeT in the acoustic detection of neutrinos [3]. To this end the piezo hydrophone in the DOM has been characterized and calibrated.…”

“…By deploying a large number of detection units, a large submerged 3D grid will be established with a total detection volume of about 1 km 3 , equiped with around 6000 optical modules. KM3NeT will therefore be one of the largest neutrino telescopes in terms of detection volume and number of sensors.…”