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Neutrino Telescopes in the Mediterranean Sea
The observation of high energy extraterrestrial neutrinos can be an
invaluable source of information about the most energetic phenomena in the
Universe. Neutrinos can shed light on the processes that accelerate charge
particles in an incredibly wide range of energies both within and outside our
Galaxy. They can also help to investigate the nature of the dark matter that
pervades the Universe. The unique properties of the neutrino make it peerless
as a cosmic messenger, enabling the study of dense and distant astrophysical
objects at high energy. The experimental challenge, however, is enormous. Due
to the weakly interacting nature of neutrinos and the expected low fluxes very
large detectors are required. In this paper we briefly review the neutrino
telescopes under the Mediterranean Sea that are operating or in progress. The
first line of the ANTARES telescope started to take data in March 2006 and the
full 12-line detector was completed in May 2008. By January 2009 more than one
thousand neutrino events had been reconstructed. Some of the results of ANTARES
will be reviewed. The NESTOR and NEMO projects have made a lot of progress to
demonstrate the feasibility of their proposed technological solutions. Finally,
the project of a km3-scale telescope, KM3NeT, is rapidly progressing: a
conceptual design report was published in 2008 and a technical design report is
expected to be delivered by the end of 2009