Integration of Acoustic Neutrino Detection Methods into ANTARES

The ANTARES Neutrino Telescope is a water Cherenkov detector currently under construction in the Mediterranean Sea. It is also designed to serve as a platform for investigations of the deep-sea environment. In this context, the ANTARES group at the University of Erlangen will integrate acoustic sensors within the infrastructure of the experiment. With this dedicated setup, tests of acoustic particle detection methods and deep-sea acoustic background studies shall be performed. The aim of this project is to evaluate the feasibility of a future acoustic neutrino telescope in the deep sea operating in the ultra-high energy regime. In these proceedings, the implementation of the project is described in the context of the premises and challenges set by the physics of acoustic particle detection and the integration into an existing infrastructure.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the International ARENA Workshop, May 28-30th, 2006, University of Northumbri