Effects of architectural issues on a km3 scale detector

Simulation results showing the comparison between the performance of different km3 detector geometries are reported. Effective neutrino areas and angular resolutions are reported for three different geometries based on NEMO-towers and strings. The results show that the NEMO-tower based detector has the best performance concerning both the effective area and the angular resolution isotropyComment: to be published on VVVNT2 proceedings (Catania, Italy, November 8-11, 2005

High-Energy Neutrino Astronomy

Kilometer-scale neutrino detectors such as IceCube are discovery instruments covering nuclear and particle physics, cosmology and astronomy. Examples of their multidisciplinary missions include the search for the particle nature of dark matter and for additional small dimensions of space. In the end, their conceptual design is very much anchored to the observational fact that Nature accelerates protons and photons to energies in excess of $10^{20}$ and $10^{13}$ eV, respectively. The cosmic ray connection sets the scale of cosmic neutrino fluxes. In this context, we discuss the first results of the completed AMANDA detector and the reach of its extension, IceCube. Similar experiments are under construction in the Mediterranean. Neutrino astronomy is also expanding in new directions with efforts to detect air showers, acoustic and radio signals initiated by super-EeV neutrinos.Comment: 9 pages, Latex2e, uses ws-procs975x65standard.sty (included), 4 postscript figures. To appear in Proceedings of Thinking, Observing, and Mining the Universe, Sorrento, Italy, September 200