A proposed deep sea Neutrino Observatory in the Nanhai

TL;DR

The paper proposes a new deep-sea neutrino observatory in the South China Sea, called NEON, designed to improve detection capabilities and complement existing neutrino telescopes, with detailed simulations showing promising performance metrics.

Contribution

This work introduces the NEON project, a 10 km³ deep-sea neutrino observatory in the Nanhai, with detailed design, layout, and performance simulations to enhance multi-messenger astronomy.

Findings

Achieves 0.1° angular resolution at 100 TeV

Estimated 5σ sensitivity of ~2×10⁻¹⁰ GeV cm⁻² s⁻¹ over 10 years

Depth variation from 1700 to 3500 meters has minimal impact on sensitivity

Abstract

Over the past ten years, several breakthroughs have been made in multi-messenger astronomy. Thanks to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, the detection of astrophysical neutrinos was proved to be practical. However, due to the limited statistics and field of view, only a few sources have been associated with IceCube neutrinos, making new and larger neutrino telescopes necessary. We propose the NEutrino Observatory in the Nanhai (NEON), located in the South China Sea to be complementary for the global neutrino detectors. This proposal describes the design and layout of the array and reports on comprehensive simulations conducted to assess its performance. The NEON project, with a volume of 10 km$^3$, achieves an angular resolution of 0.1$^\circ$ at 100 TeV. With 10 years of operation, the project's 5$\sigma$ sensitivity is estimated as $E^2\Phi \sim 2 \times 10^{-10}$ GeV cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ for a source spectrum index of -2. We found that the variation in depth from 1700 to 3500 meters does not significantly influence the sensitivity to steady sources.