Sensitivity studies for the cubic-kilometre deep-sea neutrino telescope KM3NeT

TL;DR

This paper evaluates the sensitivity of various design options for a cubic-kilometre deep-sea neutrino telescope in the Mediterranean, focusing on detecting astrophysical neutrinos from point sources and galactic objects, considering atmospheric background effects.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive sensitivity analysis for different telescope configurations, incorporating atmospheric background effects and comparing results with existing neutrino telescope limits.

Findings

Sensitivity varies with design options and source location.

Atmospheric background significantly impacts detection probabilities.

Estimated event rates improve understanding of telescope performance.

Abstract

The observation of high-energy neutrinos from astrophysical sources would substantially improve our knowledge and understanding of the non-thermal processes in these sources, and would in particular pinpoint the accelerators of cosmic rays. The sensitivity of different design options for a future cubic-kilometre scale neutrino telescope in the Mediterranean Sea is investigated for generic point sources and in particular for some of the galactic objects from which TeV gamma emmission has recently been observed by the H.E.S.S. atmospheric Cherenkov telescope. The effect of atmospheric background on the source detection probabilities has been taken into account through full simulation. The estimated event rates are compared to previous results and limits from present neutrino telescopes.