Antares: Towards a Large Underwater Neutrino Experiment

TL;DR

ANTARES is a large underwater neutrino telescope in the Mediterranean Sea, designed for high angular resolution detection of neutrinos, with recent operational results from a 5-line run demonstrating its capabilities.

Contribution

This paper presents the design and initial results of the ANTARES neutrino telescope, the largest in the Northern Hemisphere, highlighting its detector configuration and performance.

Findings

Operational 5-line data collection in 2007

Detector design achieves <0.3° angular resolution for high-energy neutrinos

Full 12-line detector planned for complete operation within the year

Abstract

After a long R&D phase to validate its detector concept, the ANTARES (Astronomy with a Neutrino Telescope and Abyss environmental RESearch) collaboration is operating the largest neutrino telescope in the Northern hemisphere, which is close to completion. It is located in the Mediterranean Sea, offshore from Toulon in France at a depth of 2500 m of water which provide a shield from cosmic rays. The detector design is based on the reconstruction of events produced by neutrino interactions. The expected angular resolution for high energy muon neutrinos (E>10 TeV) is less than 0.3 deg. To achieve this good angular resolution, severe requirements on the time resolution of the detected photons and on the determination of the relative position of the detection devices must be reached. The full 12-line detector is planned to be fully operational during this year. At present (April 2008) there are 10 lines taking data plus an instrumented line deployed at the edge of the detector to monitor environmental sea parameters. This paper describes the design of the detector as well as some results obtained during the 2007 5-line run (from March to December).