|
|
KM3NeT Collaboration(Aiello, S. et al), Alves Garre, S., Calvo, D., Carretero, V., Colomer, M., Corredoira, I., et al. (2021). Architecture and performance of the KM3NeT front-end firmware. J. Astron. Telesc. Instrum. Syst., 7(1), 016001–24pp.
Abstract: The KM3NeT infrastructure consists of two deep-sea neutrino telescopes being deployed in the Mediterranean Sea. The telescopes will detect extraterrestrial and atmospheric neutrinos by means of the incident photons induced by the passage of relativistic charged particles through the seawater as a consequence of a neutrino interaction. The telescopes are configured in a three-dimensional grid of digital optical modules, each hosting 31 photomultipliers. The photomultiplier signals produced by the incident Cherenkov photons are converted into digital information consisting of the integrated pulse duration and the time at which it surpasses a chosen threshold. The digitization is done by means of time to digital converters (TDCs) embedded in the field programmable gate array of the central logic board. Subsequently, a state machine formats the acquired data for its transmission to shore. We present the architecture and performance of the front-end firmware consisting of the TDCs and the state machine.
|
|
|
|
ANTARES Collaboration(Adrian-Martinez, S. et al), Barrios-Marti, J., Bigongiari, C., Emanuele, U., Gomez-Gonzalez, J. P., Hernandez-Rey, J. J., et al. (2014). A search for neutrino emission from the Fermi bubbles with the ANTARES telescope. Eur. Phys. J. C, 74(2), 2701–7pp.
Abstract: Analysis of the Fermi-LAT data has revealed two extended structures above and below the Galactic Centre emitting gamma rays with a hard spectrum, the so-called Fermi bubbles. Hadronic models attempting to explain the origin of the Fermi bubbles predict the emission of high-energy neutrinos and gamma rays with similar fluxes. The ANTARES detector, a neutrino telescope located in the Mediterranean Sea, has a good visibility to the Fermi bubble regions. Using data collected from 2008 to 2011 no statistically significant excess of events is observed and therefore upper limits on the neutrino flux in TeV range from the Fermi bubbles are derived for various assumed energy cutoffs of the source.
|
|
|
|
KM3NeT Collaboration(Adrian-Martinez, S. et al), Calvo Diaz-Aldagalan, D., Hernandez-Rey, J. J., Martinez-Mora, J. A., Real, D., Zornoza, J. D., et al. (2014). Deep sea tests of a prototype of the KM3NeT digital optical module. Eur. Phys. J. C, 74(9), 3056–8pp.
Abstract: The first prototype of a photo-detection unit of the future KM3NeT neutrino telescope has been deployed in the deepwaters of the Mediterranean Sea. This digital optical module has a novel design with a very large photocathode area segmented by the use of 31 three inch photomultiplier tubes. It has been integrated in the ANTARES detector for in-situ testing and validation. This paper reports on the first months of data taking and rate measurements. The analysis results highlight the capabilities of the new module design in terms of background suppression and signal recognition. The directionality of the optical module enables the recognition of multiple Cherenkov photons from the same (40)Kdecay and the localisation of bioluminescent activity in the neighbourhood. The single unit can cleanly identify atmospheric muons and provide sensitivity to the muon arrival directions.
|
|
|
|
KM3NeT Collaboration(Adrian-Martinez, S. et al), Barrios-Marti, J., Calvo Diaz-Aldagalan, D., Hernandez-Rey, J. J., Real, D., Zornoza, J. D., et al. (2016). The prototype detection unit of the KM3NeT detector. Eur. Phys. J. C, 76(2), 54–12pp.
Abstract: A prototype detection unit of the KM3NeT deep-sea neutrino telescope has been installed at 3500m depth 80 km offshore the Italian coast. KM3NeT in its final configuration will contain several hundreds of detection units. Each detection unit is a mechanical structure anchored to the sea floor, held vertical by a submerged buoy and supporting optical modules for the detection of Cherenkov light emitted by charged secondary particles emerging from neutrino interactions. This prototype string implements three optical modules with 31 photomultiplier tubes each. These optical modules were developed by the KM3NeT Collaboration to enhance the detection capability of neutrino interactions. The prototype detection unit was operated since its deployment in May 2014 until its decommissioning in July 2015. Reconstruction of the particle trajectories from the data requires a nanosecond accuracy in the time calibration. A procedure for relative time calibration of the photomultiplier tubes contained in each optical module is described. This procedure is based on the measured coincidences produced in the sea by the K background light and can easily be expanded to a detector with several thousands of optical modules. The time offsets between the different optical modules are obtained using LED nanobeacons mounted inside them. A set of data corresponding to 600 h of livetime was analysed. The results show good agreement with Monte Carlo simulations of the expected optical background and the signal from atmospheric muons. An almost background-free sample of muons was selected by filtering the time correlated signals on all the three optical modules. The zenith angle of the selected muons was reconstructed with a precision of about 3 degrees.
|
|
|
|
ANTARES Collaboration(Adrian-Martinez, S. et al), Baret, B., Barrios-Marti, J., Hernandez-Rey, J. J., Sanchez-Losa, A., Tönnis, C., et al. (2017). Stacked search for time shifted high energy neutrinos from gamma ray bursts with the ANTARES neutrino telescope. Eur. Phys. J. C, 77(1), 20–10pp.
Abstract: A search for high-energy neutrino emission correlated with gamma-ray bursts outside the electromagnetic prompt-emission time window is presented. Using a stacking approach of the time delays between reported gammaray burst alerts and spatially coincident muon-neutrino signatures, data from the Antares neutrino telescope recorded between 2007 and 2012 are analysed. One year of public data from the IceCube detector between 2008 and 2009 have been also investigated. The respective timing profiles are scanned for statistically significant accumulations within 40 days of the Gamma Ray Burst, as expected from Lorentz Invariance Violation effects and some astrophysical models. No significant excess over the expected accidental coincidence rate could be found in either of the two data sets. The average strength of the neutrino signal is found to be fainter than one detectable neutrino signal per hundred gamma-ray bursts in the Antares data at 90% confidence level.
|
|
|
|
KM3NeT Collaboration(Adrian-Martinez, S. et al), Barrios-Marti, J., Calvo, D., Hernandez-Rey, J. J., Illuminati, G., Lotze, M., et al. (2017). Intrinsic limits on resolutions in muon- and electron-neutrino charged-current events in the KM3NeT/ORCA detector. J. High Energy Phys., 05(5), 008–39pp.
Abstract: Studying atmospheric neutrino oscillations in the few-GeV range with a multimegaton detector promises to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy. This is the main science goal pursued by the future KM3NeT/ORCA water Cherenkov detector in the Mediterranean Sea. In this paper, the processes that limit the obtainable resolution in both energy and direction in charged-current neutrino events in the ORCA detector are investigated. These processes include the composition of the hadronic fragmentation products, the subsequent particle propagation and the photon-sampling fraction of the detector. GEANT simulations of neutrino interactions in seawater produced by GENIE are used to study the effects in the 1-20 GeV range. It is found that fluctuations in the hadronic cascade in conjunction with the variation of the inelasticity y are most detrimental to the resolutions. The effect of limited photon sampling in the detector is of significantly less importance. These results will therefore also be applicable to similar detectors/media, such as those in ice.
|
|
|
|
ANTARES Collaboration(Albert, A. et al), Barrios-Marti, J., Coleiro, A., Hernandez-Rey, J. J., Illuminati, G., Lotze, M., et al. (2017). An algorithm for the reconstruction of high-energy neutrino-induced particle showers and its application to the ANTARES neutrino telescope. Eur. Phys. J. C, 77(6), 419–11pp.
Abstract: A novel algorithm to reconstruct neutrino-induced particle showers within the ANTARES neutrino telescope is presented. The method achieves a median angular resolution of 6. for shower energies below 100TeV. Applying this algorithm to 6 years of data taken with theANTARES detector, 8 events with reconstructed shower energies above 10TeV are observed. This is consistent with the expectation of about 5 events from atmospheric backgrounds, but also compatible with diffuse astrophysical flux measurements by the IceCube collaboration, from which 2-4 additional events are expected. A 90% C.L. upper limit on the diffuse astrophysical neutrino flux with a value per neutrino flavour of E-2.Phi(90%) = 4.9 . 10(-8) GeV.cm(-2).s(-1).sr(-1) is set, applicable to the energy range from 23TeV to 7.8PeV, assuming an unbroken E-2 spectrum and neutrino flavour equipartition at Earth.
|
|
|
|
ANTARES Collaboration(Albert, A. et al), Barrios-Marti, J., Coleiro, A., Hernandez-Rey, J. J., Illuminati, G., Lotze, M., et al. (2017). Search for relativistic magnetic monopoles with five years of the ANTARES detector data. J. High Energy Phys., 07(7), 054–19pp.
Abstract: A search for magnetic monopoles using five years of data recorded with the ANTARES neutrino telescope from January 2008 to December 2012 with a total live time of 1121 days is presented. The analysis is carried out in the range beta > 0.6 of magnetic monopole velocities using a strategy based on run-by-run Monte Carlo simulations. No signal above the background expectation from atmospheric muons and atmospheric neutrinos is observed, and upper limits are set on the magnetic monopole flux ranging from 5.7 x 10(-16) to 1.5 x 10(-18) cm(-2).s(-1).sr(-1).
|
|
|
|
ANTARES Collaboration(Albert, A. et al), Barrios-Marti, J., Coleiro, A., Hernandez-Rey, J. J., Illuminati, G., Lotze, M., et al. (2017). All-sky search for high-energy neutrinos from gravitational wave event GW170104 with the ANTARES neutrino telescope. Eur. Phys. J. C, 77(12), 911–7pp.
Abstract: Advanced LIGO detected a significant gravitational wave signal (GW170104) originating from the coalescence of two black holes during the second observation run on January 4th, 2017. Anall-sky high-energy neutrino follow-up search has been made using data from the Antares neutrino telescope, including both upgoing and downgoing events in two separate analyses. No neutrino candidates were found within +/- 500 s around the GW event time nor any time clustering of events over an extended time window of +/- 3 months. The non-detection is used to constrain isotropic-equivalent high-energy neutrino emission from GW170104 to less than similar to 1.2 x 10(55) erg for a E-2 spectrum. This constraint is valid in the energy range corresponding to the 5-95% quantiles of the neutrino flux [3.2 TeV; 3.6 PeV], if the GW emitter was below the Antares horizon at the alert time.
|
|
|
|
ANTARES Collaboration(Albert, A. et al), Barrios-Marti, J., Coleiro, A., Colomer, M., Hernandez-Rey, J. J., Illuminati, G., et al. (2018). Long-term monitoring of the ANTARES optical module efficiencies using K-40 decays in sea water. Eur. Phys. J. C, 78(8), 669–8pp.
Abstract: Cherenkov light induced by radioactive decay products is one of the major sources of background light for deep-sea neutrino telescopes such as ANTARES. These decays are at the same time a powerful calibration source. Using data collected by the ANTARES neutrino telescope from mid 2008 to 2017, the time evolution of the photon detection efficiency of optical modules is studied. A modest loss of only 20% in 9 years is observed. The relative time calibration between adjacent modules is derived as well.
|
|
