1,301 research outputs found
The ANTARES project
The ANTARES deep-sea neutrino telescope will be located at a depth of 2400 m
in the Mediterranean Sea. Deployment of the detector will commence this Autumn
and is expected to be completed by the end of 2004. With a surface area of the
order of 0.1 km^2 it will be one of the largest European detectors. The aim of
neutrino telescopes is to detect high-energy neutrinos from astrophysical
sources whilst also providing information on the early Universe. Successful
operation of ANTARES in a deep sea environment constitutes an important
milestone towards the ultimate goal of the construction of an underwater
neutrino telescope at the cubic-kilometre scale. The sky coverage of
astrophysical sources offered by a Mediterranean neutrino telescope is
complementary to any similar device at the South Pole. The current status of
the project is discussed and the expected performance of the detector is
described in the context of the scientific programme of the project which
comprises astrophysical studies, dark matter searches and neutrino
oscillations.Comment: Submitted to ICHEP02 Conference, 31st Int. Conf. on High Energy
Physics, 24-31 July 2002, Amsterdam. LaTeX, 10 pages, 9 figure
Testing Quantum Gravity via Cosmogenic Neutrino Oscillations
Implications of some proposed theories of quantum gravity for neutrino flavor
oscillations are explored within the context of modified dispersion relations
of special relativity. In particular, approximate expressions for
Planck-scale-induced deviations from the standard oscillation length are
obtained as functions of neutrino mass, energy, and propagation distance.
Grounding on these expressions, it is pointed out that, in general, even those
deviations that are suppressed by the second power of the Planck energy may be
observable for ultra-high-energy neutrinos, provided they originate at
cosmological distances. In fact, for neutrinos in the highest energy range of
EeV to ZeV, deviations that are suppressed by as much as the seventh power of
the Planck energy may become observable. Accordingly, realistic possibilities
of experimentally verifying these deviations by means of the next generation
neutrino detectors--such as IceCube and ANITA--are investigated.Comment: 8 pages, RevTeX4; Essentially the published versio
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&
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