Status report of the ANTARES project

The ANTARES project aims at the construction of an underwater neutrino telescope at the scale of 0.1 km^2 2400 m deep in the Mediterranean Sea. After a 4-year R&D program, the ANTARES project has entered the construction phase which will be concluded by the end of 2004. The current status of the project is reported.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures. to appear in Proc. of TAUP2001 conference, Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, Sept. 200

Neutrino signal from extended Galactic sources in IceCube

We explore the detectability of the neutrino flux from the entire Galactic Plane or from a part of it with IceCube. We calculate the normalization and the spectral index of the neutrino power law spectrum from different regions of the Galactic plane, based on the observed spectral characteristics of the pion decay gamma-ray diffuse emission observed by the Fermi/LAT telescope in the energy band above 100 GeV. We compare the neutrino flux calculated in this way with the sensitivity of IceCube for the detection of extended sources. Assuming a binned extended source analysis method, we find that the only possible evidence for neutrino emission for sources located in the Northern hemisphere is from the Cygnus region after 20 years of exposure. For other parts of the Galactic Plane even a 20 years exposure with IceCube is not sufficient for the detection. Taking into account marginal significance of the detectable source in the Cygnus region, we find a precise position and size of the source region which optimizes the signal-to-noise ratio for neutrinos. We also calculate the low-energy threshold above which the neutrino signal could be detected with the highest signal-to-noise ratio. This calculation of precise source position, size and energy range, based on the gamma-ray data, could be used to remove the 'trial factor' in the analysis of the real neutrino data of IceCube. We notice that the diffuse neutrino emission from the inner Galactic Plane in the Southern Hemisphere is much brighter. A neutrino detector with characteristics equivalent to IceCube, but placed at the Northern Hemisphere (such as KM3NeT), would detect several isolated neutrino sources in the Galactic Plane within just 5 years exposure at 5{\sigma} level. These isolated sources of ~TeV neutrinos would unambiguously localize sources of cosmic rays which operated over the last 10 thousand years in the Galaxy.[abridged]Comment: submitted to A&

High energy extension of the FLUKA atmospheric neutrino flux

The atmospheric neutrino flux calculated with FLUKA was originally limited to 100-200 GeV for statistical reasons. In order to make it available for the analysis of high energy events, like upward through-going muons detected by neutrino telescopes, we have extended the calculation so to provide a reliable neutrino yield per primary nucleon up to about 10**6 GeV/nucleon, as far as the interaction model is concerned. We point out that the primary flux model above 100 GeV/nucleon still contributes with an important systematic error to the neutrino flux.Comment: Extended version (10 pages) of the contribution to ICRC 2003, with the addition of flux table

Search for a possible space-time correlation between high energy neutrinos and γ\gamma-ray bursts

We look for space-time correlations between 2233 gamma-bursts in the Batse Catalogs and 894 upward-going muons produced by neutrino interactions in the rock below or inside MACRO. Considering a search cone of 10 degrees around GRB directions and a time window of 200 s we find 0 events to be compared to 0.035 expected background events due to atmospheric neutrinos. The corresponding upper limit (90% c.l.) is 0.87 * 10^-9 cm^-2 upward-going muons per average burst

Comparison of the FLUKA calculations with CAPRICE94 data on muons in atmosphere

In order to benchmark the 3-dimensional calculation of the atmospheric neutrino flux based on the FLUKA Monte Carlo code, muon fluxes in the atmosphere have been computed and compared with data taken by the CAPRICE94 experiment at ground level and at different altitudes in the atmosphere. For this purpose only two additions have been introduced with respect to the neutrino flux calculation: the specific solar modulation corresponding to the period of data taking and the bending of charged particles in the atmosphere. Results are in good agreement with experimental data, although improvements in the model are possible. At this level, however, it is not possible to disentangle the interplay between the primary flux and the interaction model.In order to benchmark the 3-dimensional calculation of the atmospheric neutrino flux based on the FLUKA Monte Carlo code, muon fluxes in the atmosphere have been computed and compared with data taken by the CAPRICE94 experiment at ground level and at different altitudes in the atmosphere. For this purpose only two additions have been introduced with respect to the neutrino flux calculation: the specific solar modulation corresponding to the period of data taking and the bending of charged particles in the atmosphere. Results are in good agreement with experimental data, although improvements in the model are possible. At this level, however, it is not possible to disentangle the interplay between the primary flux and the interaction model.In order to benchmark the 3-dimensional calculation of the atmospheric neutrino flux based on the FLUKA Monte Carlo code, muon fluxes in the atmosphere have been computed and compared with data taken by the CAPRICE94 experiment at ground level and at different altitudes in the atmosphere. For this purpose only two additions have been introduced with respect to the neutrino flux calculation: the specific solar modulation corresponding to the period of data taking and the bending of charged particles in the atmosphere. Results are in good agreement with experimental data, although improvements in the model are possible. At this level, however, it is not possible to disentangle the interplay between the primary flux and the interaction model.In order to benchmark the 3-dimensional calculation of the atmospheric neutrino flux based on the FLUKA Monte Carlo code, muon fluxes in the atmosphere have been computed and compared with data taken by the CAPRICE94 experiment at ground level and at different altitudes in the atmosphere. For this purpose only two additions have been introduced with respect to the neutrino flux calculation: the specific solar modulation corresponding to the period of data taking and the bending of charged particles in the atmosphere. Results are in good agreement with experimental data, although improvements in the model are possible. At this level, however, it is not possible to disentangle the interplay between the primary flux and the interaction model.In order to benchmark the 3-dimensional calculation of the atmospheric neutrino flux based on the FLUKA Monte Carlo code, muon fluxes in the atmosphere have been computed and compared with data taken by the CAPRICE94 experiment at ground level and at different altitudes in the atmosphere. For this purpose only two additions have been introduced with respect to the neutrino flux calculation: the specific solar modulation corresponding to the period of data taking and the bending of charged particles in the atmosphere. Results are in good agreement with experimental data, although improvements in the model are possible. At this level, however, it is not possible to disentangle the interplay between the primary flux and the interaction model