Reconstruction efficiency and discovery potential of a Mediterranean neutrino telescope: A simulation study using the Hellenic Open University Reconstruction & Simulation (HOURS) package

TL;DR

This study evaluates the performance and discovery potential of a Mediterranean neutrino telescope using simulations, focusing on detecting galactic and extragalactic neutrino sources and measuring diffuse fluxes.

Contribution

It provides detailed simulation-based performance metrics and discovery potential estimates for a Mediterranean neutrino telescope using the HOURS software package.

Findings

Effective area and angular resolution vary with neutrino energy.

Background event rates from atmospheric neutrinos and muons are estimated.

Time required for significant discovery of neutrino sources is calculated.

Abstract

We report on the evaluation of the performance of a Mediterranean very large volume neutrino telescope. We present results of our studies concerning the capability of the telescope in detecting/discovering galactic (steady point sources) and extragalactic, transient (Gamma Ray Bursts) high energy neutrino sources as well as measuring ultra high energy diffuse neutrino fluxes. The neutrino effective area and angular resolution are presented as a function of the neutrino energy, and the background event rate (atmospheric neutrinos and muons) is estimated. The discovery potential of the neutrino telescope is evaluated and the experimental time required for a significant discovery of potential neutrino emitters (known from their gamma ray emission, assumedly produced by hadronic interactions) is estimated. For the simulation we use the HOU Reconstruction & Simulation (HOURS) software package.