Neutrino Telescopes in the Mediterranean Sea

TL;DR

This paper reviews the development and progress of neutrino telescopes in the Mediterranean Sea, highlighting ANTARES, NESTOR, NEMO, and the upcoming KM3NeT project for detecting high-energy extraterrestrial neutrinos.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of the technological advancements and operational status of Mediterranean neutrino telescopes, including recent results and future plans.

Findings

ANTARES started data collection in 2006 with over 1000 neutrino events reconstructed by 2009.

NESTOR and NEMO have demonstrated technological feasibility for underwater neutrino detection.

KM3NeT project is in advanced design stages aiming for a km3-scale neutrino telescope.

Abstract

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.