Baikal-GVD

We present the status of the Gigaton Volume Detector in Lake Baikal (Baikal-GVD) designed for the detection of high energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin. The telescope consists of functionally independent clusters, sub-arrays of optical modules (OMs), which are connected to shore by individual electro-optical cables. During 2015 the GVD demonstration cluster, comprising 192 OMs, has been successfully operated in Lake Baikal. In 2016 this array was upgraded to baseline configuration of GVD cluster with 288 OMs arranged on eight vertical strings. Thus the instrumented water volume has been increased up to about 5.9 Mtons. The array was commissioned in early April 2016 and takes data since then. We describe the configuration and design of the 2016 array. Preliminary results obtained with data recorded in 2015 are also discussed

Status of the early construction phase of Baikal-GVD

The second-stage neutrino telescope BAIKAL-GVD in Lake Baikal will be a research infrastructure aimed mainly at studying astrophysical neutrino fluxes by recording the Cherenkov radiation of the secondary muons and showers generated in neutrino interactions. The prototyping/early construction phase of the BAIKAL-GVD project which is directed towards deployment and operation of the first demonstration cluster has been started in April 2011. An important step on realization of the GVD project was made in 2014 by the deployment of the second stage of the demonstration cluster which contains 112 OMs arranged on five strings, as well as equipment of an acoustic positioning system and instrumentation string with an array calibration and environment monitoring equipment. Deployment of the demonstration cluster will be completed in 2015