KM3NeT Collaboration(Aiello, S. et al), Barrios-Marti, J., Calvo, D., Coleiro, A., Colomer, M., Gozzini, S. R., et al. (2019). Sensitivity of the KM3NeT/ARCA neutrino telescope to point-like neutrino sources. Astropart Phys., 111, 100–110.
Abstract: KM3NeT will be a network of deep-sea neutrino telescopes in the Mediterranean Sea. The KM3NeT/ARCA detector, to be installed at the Capo Passero site (Italy), is optimised for the detection of high-energy neutrinos of cosmic origin. Thanks to its geographical location on the Northern hemisphere, KM3NeT/ARCA can observe upgoing neutrinos from most of the Galactic Plane, including the Galactic Centre. Given its effective area and excellent pointing resolution, KM3NeT/ARCA will measure or significantly constrain the neutrino flux from potential astrophysical neutrino sources. At the same time, it will test flux predictions based on gamma-ray measurements and the assumption that the gamma-ray flux is of hadronic origin. Assuming this scenario, discovery potentials and sensitivities for a selected list of Galactic sources and to generic point sources with an E(-2 )spectrum are presented. These spectra are assumed to be time independent. The results indicate that an observation with 3 sigma significance is possible in about six years of operation for the most intense sources, such as Supernovae Remnants RX J1713.7-3946 and Vela Jr. If no signal will be found during this time, the fraction of the gamma-ray flux coming from hadronic processes can be constrained to be below 50% for these two objects.
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KM3NeT Collaboration(Aiello, S. et al), Alves Garre, S., Calvo, D., Carretero, V., Colomer, M., Hernandez-Rey, J. J., et al. (2021). Sensitivity to light sterile neutrino mixing parameters with KM3NeT/ORCA. J. High Energy Phys., 10(10), 180–26pp.
Abstract: KM3NeT/ORCA is a next-generation neutrino telescope optimised for atmospheric neutrino oscillations studies. In this paper, the sensitivity of ORCA to the presence of a light sterile neutrino in a 3+1 model is presented. After three years of data taking, ORCA will be able to probe the active-sterile mixing angles theta(14), theta(24), theta(34) and the effective angle theta(mu e), over a broad range of mass squared difference Delta m(41)(2) similar to [10(-5), 10] eV(2), allowing to test the eV-mass sterile neutrino hypothesis as the origin of short baseline anomalies, as well as probing the hypothesis of a very light sterile neutrino, not yet constrained by cosmology. ORCA will be able to explore a relevant fraction of the parameter space not yet reached by present measurements.
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Real, D., & Calvo, D. (2023). Silicon Photomultipliers for Neutrino Telescopes. Universe, 9(7), 326–14pp.
Abstract: Neutrino astronomy has opened a new window to the extreme Universe, entering into a fruitful era built upon the success of neutrino telescopes, which have already given a new step forward in this novel and growing field by the first observation of steady point-like sources already achieved by IceCube. Neutrino telescopes equipped with Silicon PhotoMultipliers (SiPMs) will significantly increase in number, because of their excellent time resolution and the angular resolution, and will be in better condition to detect more steady sources as well as the unexpected. The use of SiPMs represents a challenge to the acquisition electronics because of the fast signals as well as the high levels of dark noise produced by SiPMs. The acquisition electronics need to include a noise rejection scheme by implementing a coincidence filter between channels. This work discusses the advantages and disadvantages of using SiPMs for the next generation of neutrino telescopes, focusing on the possible developments that could help for their adoption in the near future.
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KM3NeT Collaboration(Aiello, S. et al), Calvo, D., Coleiro, A., Colomer, M., Gozzini, S. R., Hernandez-Rey, J. J., et al. (2020). The Control Unit of the KM3NeT Data Acquisition System. Comput. Phys. Commun., 256, 107433–16pp.
Abstract: The KM3NeT Collaboration runs a multi-site neutrino observatory in the Mediterranean Sea. Water Cherenkov particle detectors, deep in the sea and far off the coasts of France and Italy, are already taking data while incremental construction progresses. Data Acquisition Control software is operating off-shore detectors as well as testing and qualification stations for their components. The software, named Control Unit, is highly modular. It can undergo upgrades and reconfiguration with the acquisition running. Interplay with the central database of the Collaboration is obtained in a way that allows for data taking even if Internet links fail. In order to simplify the management of computing resources in the long term, and to cope with possible hardware failures of one or more computers, the KM3NeT Control Unit software features a custom dynamic resource provisioning and failover technology, which is especially important for ensuring continuity in case of rare transient events in multi-messenger astronomy. The software architecture relies on ubiquitous tools and broadly adopted technologies and has been successfully tested on several operating systems.
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KM3NeT Collaboration(Aiello, S. et al), Alves Garre, S., Calvo, D., Carretero, V., Colomer, M., Garcia Soto, A., et al. (2022). The KM3NeT multi-PMT optical module. J. Instrum., 17(7), P07038–28pp.
Abstract: The optical module of the KM3NeT neutrino telescope is an innovative multi-faceted large area photodetection module. It contains 31 three-inch photomultiplier tubes in a single 0.44 m diameter pressure-resistant glass sphere. The module is a sensory device also comprising calibration instruments and electronics for power, readout and data acquisition. It is capped with a breakout-box with electronics for connection to an electro-optical cable for power and long-distance communication to the onshore control station. The design of the module was qualified for the first time in the deep sea in 2013. Since then, the technology has been further improved to meet requirements of scalability, cost-effectiveness and high reliability. The module features a sub-nanosecond timing accuracy and a dynamic range allowing the measurement of a single photon up to a cascade of thousands of photons, suited for the measurement of the Cherenkov radiation induced in water by secondary particles from interactions of neutrinos with energies in the range of GeV to PeV. A distributed production model has been implemented for the delivery of more than 6000 modules in the coming few years with an average production rate of more than 100 modules per month. In this paper a review is presented of the design of the multi-PMT KM3NeT optical module with a proven effective background suppression and signal recognition and sensitivity to the incoming direction of photons.
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