Neutrino Telescope in Lake Baikal: Present and Future

TL;DR

The Baikal Gigaton Volume Detector in Lake Baikal has significantly advanced in construction and operation, now detecting high-energy astrophysical neutrinos and integrating multimessenger observations to explore cosmic phenomena.

Contribution

This paper reports the progress in detector construction, increased effective volume, and initial results, highlighting the detector's role in multimessenger astrophysics.

Findings

Detected 2-3 astrophysical neutrino events per year

Effective volume increased to 0.25 km³ for >100 TeV neutrinos

Preliminary results from 2016-2018 data analysis

Abstract

A significant progress in the construction and operation of the Baikal Gigaton Volume Detector in Lake Baikal, the largest and deepest freshwater lake in the world, is reported. The effective volume of the detector for neutrino initiated cascades of relativistic particles with energy above 100 TeV has been increased up to about 0.25 cubic kilometer. This unique scientific facility, the largest operating neutrino telescope in Northern Hemisphere, allows already to register two to three events per year from astrophysical neutrinos with energies exceeding 100 TeV. Preliminary results obtained with data recorded in 2016-2018 are announced. Multimessenger approach is used to relate finding of cosmic neutrinos with those of classical astronomers, with X-ray or gamma-ray observations and the gravitational wave events.