ANTARES ANTARES aims, status and prospects aims, status and prospects Susan Cartwright University of Sheffield
Dec 20, 2015
ANTARES ANTARES
aims, status and prospectsaims, status and prospects
Susan Cartwright
University of Sheffield
OutlineOutline
Principles of neutrino telescopesPrinciples of neutrino telescopes The ANTARES DetectorThe ANTARES Detector Results from current deploymentResults from current deployment Expected physics performanceExpected physics performance ConclusionsConclusions
Neutrino telescopesNeutrino telescopes
Basic principleBasic principle instrument natural body of water instrument natural body of water
(ocean, ice cap) to act as water (ocean, ice cap) to act as water Cherenkov experimentCherenkov experiment
sensitive to sensitive to high energyhigh energy muonmuon neutrinosneutrinos
• sparsely instrumented, so need long tracksparsely instrumented, so need long track
highly directionalhighly directional• for high energy neutrinos, muon direction for high energy neutrinos, muon direction
= neutrino direction= neutrino direction
Aims and problems Aims and problems (general)(general) Aim: detect high energy neutrinos from Aim: detect high energy neutrinos from
astrophysical sourcesastrophysical sources ““beam dump” sources (proton accelerators)beam dump” sources (proton accelerators) particle sources (particle sources (χχχχ annihilation, decays of annihilation, decays of
heavy exotics)heavy exotics) Problems:Problems:
cosmic ray muon backgroundcosmic ray muon background• go deep, look downgo deep, look down
atmospheric neutrino backgroundatmospheric neutrino background light transmission/backgrounds in natural light transmission/backgrounds in natural
waterwater
ANTARESANTARES
Located off southern Located off southern France in 2.4 km deep France in 2.4 km deep waterwater
Extensive site Extensive site evaluation programme, evaluation programme, 1996–20021996–2002 water qualitywater quality rates and backgroundsrates and backgrounds site surveysite survey
Infrastructure and Infrastructure and prototype deployment, prototype deployment, 2001–20052001–2005
Fully deployed by 2007Fully deployed by 2007
ANTARES deploymentANTARES deployment
laying the cable
Junction Box deployment
sector line tests
sector line deployment
submarine connection
Data from MILOMData from MILOM
EnvironmentEnvironment
backgrounds:• 40K content of seawater• continuous bioluminescence• bioluminescence bursts
Sky coverage of Sky coverage of ANTARESANTARES
located in mid-northern latitudes, so
see southern sky
complementary to AMANDA/
IceCube at South Pole
Expected physics Expected physics performanceperformance Angular Angular
resolution resolution dominated by dominated by intrinsic intrinsic μ−νμ−ν for for E < 10 TeV, E < 10 TeV, ~0.2~0.2° for high E° for high E
Critical for Critical for identifying any identifying any observed point observed point sourcesource
Possible sourcesPossible sources
Same candidates as UHE cosmic-Same candidates as UHE cosmic-ray sourcesray sources blazarsblazars
• subspecies of active galactic nucleisubspecies of active galactic nuclei
gamma-ray burstsgamma-ray bursts young supernova remnantsyoung supernova remnants microquasars microquasars
• accreting binary systems producing accreting binary systems producing relativistic jet outflowsrelativistic jet outflows
Effect of neutrino mass Effect of neutrino mass
Direct mass effectsDirect mass effects none worth mentioning!none worth mentioning!
Oscillation effectsOscillation effects ““beam dump” sources produce muon beam dump” sources produce muon
neutrinos through pion decayneutrinos through pion decay these will oscillate to tau neutrinosthese will oscillate to tau neutrinos
• this reduces efficiencythis reduces efficiency• tau neutrinos can be tagged through tau neutrinos can be tagged through
“double bang” effects, but ANTARES is “double bang” effects, but ANTARES is too small (can be done in IceCube)too small (can be done in IceCube)
note high energy threshold → no supernova or solar neutrinos
Dark matter via Dark matter via neutrinosneutrinos WIMPs travel at around 200 km/sWIMPs travel at around 200 km/s
scattering in Sun or Earth may slow them scattering in Sun or Earth may slow them enough for gravitational captureenough for gravitational capture
accumulate in coreaccumulate in core annihilation produces annihilation produces
neutrino signal vianeutrino signal viaχχχχ→→ZZ, tt, bb, etc.ZZ, tt, bb, etc.
• in decreasing order ofin decreasing order ofANTARES’ sensitivity!ANTARES’ sensitivity!
flavour democratic,flavour democratic,oscillation not importantoscillation not important
Dark matter search in Dark matter search in mSUGRA modelsmSUGRA models Sun is best Sun is best
“standard” “standard” sourcesource up to several up to several
thousand muons thousand muons per kmper km22 per year per year
mainly WW mainly WW and ZZand ZZ
mainly ttmainly tt
SuSpect + DarkSUSY, Nezri et al
ConclusionsConclusions
AMANDA/IceCube has proven feasibility AMANDA/IceCube has proven feasibility of high-energy neutrino astrophysicsof high-energy neutrino astrophysics
ANTARES will provide complementary ANTARES will provide complementary sky coveragesky coverage string deployment 2006/7string deployment 2006/7 EU FP6 Design Study programme for scale-EU FP6 Design Study programme for scale-
up to cubic kilometre (KM3NET)up to cubic kilometre (KM3NET) solar neutrinos turned out to be a way solar neutrinos turned out to be a way
of studying neutrinos using astrophysicsof studying neutrinos using astrophysics high energy neutrinos will be a way to high energy neutrinos will be a way to
study astrophysics with neutrinosstudy astrophysics with neutrinos