216 research outputs found
Evaluation and Selection of the MEUST Submarine Site
http://meust.cnrs.fr/MEUST_site_choice_report.pdfThis report summarizes the results of the investiga tions performed to select the MEUST submarine site. Measurement campaigns have been conducted during 2012 on several locations off shore of Toulon. During this period the most distant site has s hown a higher sensitivity to bioluminescence seasonal variations, whereas the more coastal sites had simila r conditions as Antares. This observation combined with logistic constraints leads to select a site located at similar latitude as Antares but more western on the other side of the CC5 telecommunication cable to Cors ica. The route of the MEUST Main Electro-Optical Cable has been defined accordingly, with some flexib ility to allow fine tuning of its end point as function of the outcome of the final site characterizations scheduled in 2013
Status and Recent Results of the Acoustic Neutrino Detection Test System AMADEUS
The AMADEUS system is an integral part of the ANTARES neutrino telescope in
the Mediterranean Sea. The project aims at the investigation of techniques for
acoustic neutrino detection in the deep sea. Installed at a depth of more than
2000m, the acoustic sensors of AMADEUS are based on piezo-ceramics elements for
the broad-band recording of signals with frequencies ranging up to 125kHz.
AMADEUS was completed in May 2008 and comprises six "acoustic clusters", each
one holding six acoustic sensors that are arranged at distances of roughly 1m
from each other. The clusters are installed with inter-spacings ranging from
15m to 340m. Acoustic data are continuously acquired and processed at a
computer cluster where online filter algorithms are applied to select a
high-purity sample of neutrino-like signals. 1.6 TB of data were recorded in
2008 and 3.2 TB in 2009. In order to assess the background of neutrino-like
signals in the deep sea, the characteristics of ambient noise and transient
signals have been investigated. In this article, the AMADEUS system will be
described and recent results will be presented.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures. Proceedings of ARENA 2010, the 4th International
Workshop on Acoustic and Radio EeV Neutrino Detection Activitie
Acoustic and optical variations during rapid downward motion episodes in the deep north-western Mediterranean Sea
An Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) was moored at the deep-sea site
of the ANTARES neutrino telescope near Toulon, France, thus providing a unique
opportunity to compare high-resolution acoustic and optical observations
between 70 and 170 m above the sea bed at 2475 m. The ADCP measured downward
vertical currents of magnitudes up to 0.03 m s-1 in late winter and early
spring 2006. In the same period, observations were made of enhanced levels of
acoustic reflection, interpreted as suspended particles including zooplankton,
by a factor of about 10 and of horizontal currents reaching 0.35 m s-1. These
observations coincided with high light levels detected by the telescope,
interpreted as increased bioluminescence. During winter 2006 deep dense-water
formation occurred in the Ligurian subbasin, thus providing a possible
explanation for these observations. However, the 10-20 days quasi-periodic
episodes of high levels of acoustic reflection, light and large vertical
currents continuing into the summer are not direct evidence of this process. It
is hypothesized that the main process allowing for suspended material to be
moved vertically later in the year is local advection, linked with topographic
boundary current instabilities along the rim of the 'Northern Current'.Comment: 30 pages, 7 figure
Measurement of Atmospheric Neutrino Oscillations with the ANTARES Neutrino Telescope
The data taken with the ANTARES neutrino telescope from 2007 to 2010, a total
live time of 863 days, are used to measure the oscillation parameters of
atmospheric neutrinos. Muon tracks are reconstructed with energies as low as 20
GeV. Neutrino oscillations will cause a suppression of vertical upgoing muon
neutrinos of such energies crossing the Earth. The parameters determining the
oscillation of atmospheric neutrinos are extracted by fitting the event rate as
a function of the ratio of the estimated neutrino energy and reconstructed
flight path through the Earth. Measurement contours of the oscillation
parameters in a two-flavour approximation are derived. Assuming maximum mixing,
a mass difference of eV is
obtained, in good agreement with the world average value.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure
A First Search for coincident Gravitational Waves and High Energy Neutrinos using LIGO, Virgo and ANTARES data from 2007
We present the results of the first search for gravitational wave bursts
associated with high energy neutrinos. Together, these messengers could reveal
new, hidden sources that are not observed by conventional photon astronomy,
particularly at high energy. Our search uses neutrinos detected by the
underwater neutrino telescope ANTARES in its 5 line configuration during the
period January - September 2007, which coincided with the fifth and first
science runs of LIGO and Virgo, respectively. The LIGO-Virgo data were analysed
for candidate gravitational-wave signals coincident in time and direction with
the neutrino events. No significant coincident events were observed. We place
limits on the density of joint high energy neutrino - gravitational wave
emission events in the local universe, and compare them with densities of
merger and core-collapse events.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, science summary page at
http://www.ligo.org/science/Publication-S5LV_ANTARES/index.php. Public access
area to figures, tables at
https://dcc.ligo.org/cgi-bin/DocDB/ShowDocument?docid=p120000
A search for neutrino emission from the Fermi bubbles with the ANTARES telescope
Analysis of the Fermi-LAT data has revealed two extended structures above and below the Galactic Centre emitting gamma rays with a hard spectrum, the so-called Fermi bubbles. Hadronic models attempting to explain the origin of the Fermi bubbles predict the emission of high-energy neutrinos and gamma rays with similar fluxes. The ANTARES detector, a neutrino telescope located in the Mediterranean Sea, has a good visibility to the Fermi bubble regions. Using data collected from 2008 to 2011 no statistically significant excess of events is observed and therefore upper limits on the neutrino flux in TeV range from the Fermi bubbles are derived for various assumed energy cutoffs of the source
Time calibration of the ANTARES neutrino telescope
The ANTARES deep-sea neutrino telescope comprises a three-dimensional array of photomultipliers to detect the Cherenkov light induced by upgoing relativistic charged particles originating from neutrino interactions in the vicinity of the detector. The large scattering length of light in the deep sea facilitates an angular resolution of a few tenths of a degree for neutrino energies exceeding 10 TeV. In order to achieve this optimal performance, the time calibration procedures should ensure a relative time calibration between the photomultipliers at the level of similar to 1 ns. The methods developed to attain this level of precision are described
Searches for Point-like and extended neutrino sources close to the Galactic Centre using the ANTARES neutrino Telescope
A search for cosmic neutrino sources using six years of data collected by the ANTARES neutrino telescope has been performed. Clusters of muon neutrinos over the expected atmospheric background have been looked for. No clear signal has been found. The most signal-like accumulation of events is located at equatorial coordinates R.A. = -46 degrees.8 and decl. = -64 degrees.9 and corresponds to a 2.2 sigma background fluctuation. In addition, upper limits on the flux normalization of an E-2 muon neutrino energy spectrum have been set for 50 pre-selected astrophysical objects. Finally, motivated by an accumulation of seven events relatively close to the Galactic Center in the recently reported neutrino sample of the IceCube telescope, a search for point sources in a broad region around this accumulation has been carried out. No indication of a neutrino signal has been found in the ANTARES data and upper limits on the flux normalization of an E-2 energy spectrum of neutrinos from point sources in that region have been set. The 90% confidence level upper limits on the muon neutrino flux normalization vary between 3.5 and 5.1 x 10(-8) GeV cm(-2) s(-1), depending on the exact location of the source
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