Speaker
Description
The KM3NeT collaboration is constructing two last-generation underwater neutrino telescopes in two abyssal sites of the Mediterranean Sea. The scientific goal is to complement the IceCube sky coverage, instrumenting a comparable detection volume and improving the reconstruction accuracy.
Each telescope is a Cherenkov detector built with the same technologies but with a different geometrical layout. Thanks to such two installations, KM3NeT can cover a large neutrino energy range thus addressing various science topics.
ARCA (Astroparticle Research with Cosmics in the Abyss), 100 Km offshore Portopalo di Capopassero (Sicily) and at a depth of 3500 m, is designed for the detection of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos in the energy range of TeV-PeV; ORCA (Oscillation Research with Cosmics in the Abyss), 40 km offshore Toulon (France) and at a depth of 2500 m, is optimized for the detection of less energetic neutrinos starting from few GeV.
The multi-PMT optical module design provides high resolution, good positioning and timing calibration.
In this talk, an overview of the technology developed for the construction of the telescopes and their current status will be presented. The expected performance of the full detectors and some preliminary results obtained with the first deployed detection units will be reviewed.