KM3NeT - KM3NeT

KM3NeT on display at the “Des abysses au cosmos” exhibition

From the 15th of September to the 8th of October, KM3NeT is represented at the exhibition “Des abysses au cosmos” (From the abyss to the cosmos), at the Fort Napoléon cultural centre in La Seyne-sur-Mer, France, operating quarters of the ANTARES and KM3NeT experiments.

The exhibition presents 20 years of underwater exploration of the cosmos, as well as the scientific and technological challenges and innovations involved in studying neutrinos and the deep marine environment. Organised by the CPPM and the City Hall of la Seyne-sur-Mer, this exhibition is aimed at the general public as well as primary and secondary school students.

Posters, photos, miniatures, objects and mini-interviews about KM3NeT are displayed, showing the scientific and technological efforts done by the Collaboration since the beginnings of the experiment to the present day. The KM3NeT-INFRADEV2 project is also represented to highlight the Collaboration’s commitment towards the full implementation of a reliable and sustainable KM3NeT international Research Infrastructure. A section is also dedicated to women in science, presenting the involvement of women scientists, engineers and technicians in KM3NeT.

 

An exhibition that will take its visitors to a depth of more than 2400 metres and behind the scenes of international research!

 

Some of the objects presented at the exhibit (by Chiara Lastoria)

 

Some pictures of the exhibition opening, on the 14th of September (by Victoria Ciarlet)

 

More information on the exhibition: https://cppm.in2p3.fr/abysses-cosmos

KM3NeT in the ICRC2023 proceedings

The ICRC is the International Cosmic Ray Conference. It is one of the major conferences in astroparticle physics and covers many subfields. In 2023, the 38th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC) took place in Nagoya, Japan.

KM3NeT researchers actively participated to present the work of the Collaboration and many contributions to the proceedings of the conference were published. The full proceedings of ICRC2023 can be found at here. Below you find the individual KM3NeT contributions, categorised in the various scientific and technological fields.

Neutrino astronomy using the KM3NeT/ARCA detector

Solar and heliospheric physics

Multi-messenger and gravitational waves

Neutrino oscillation physics using the KM3NeT/ORCA detector

Charged cosmic ray physics

Dark matter and exotics

Calibration

Data acquisition

Reconstruction and analysis tools

Outreach

 

KM3NeT presented at conferences worldwide

15 September 2023 – This summer, KM3NeT members participated in conferences all over the world to present the latest results and  developments of our Collaboration.

Besides TAUP in Vienna, EPS-HEP in Hamburg, and TeVPA in Naples, KM3NeT-ers have massively attended the 38th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC), in Nagoya, Japan. Since the ICRC is among the largest conferences in the field of astroparticle physics, it was an ideal opportunity for reporting the progress of the collaboration in neutrino astronomy, neutrino physics, multi-messenger astronomy, cosmic rays, and dark matter searches.

In total, KM3NeT presented 10 talks and 28 posters at the ICRC, in addition to a plenary talk given by prof. Antoine Kouchner, the spokesperson of the ANTARES Collaboration, on catching neutrinos in the Mediterranean Sea.

Interested?

The full proceedings of ICRC2023 can be found here. For your convenience, the contributions of KM3NeT to the proceedings are available here and are also on arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.05016.

KM3NeT members at the ICRC2023.
Antoine Kouchner, spokesperson of the ANTARES Collaboration, presenting at the ICRC2023 an overview of recent work achieved by ANTARES and KM3NeT.
Some of the talks given by KM3NeT members at the ICRC2023.
Some of the posters presented by KM3NeT members at the ICRC2023.

 

Three more detection units for KM3NeT/ORCA

1 May 2023 – During a two days sea operation, 27-28 April 2023, three detection units were successfully connected to the ORCA detector of KM3NeT in a record time of just over 24 hours. In addition, an acoustic beacon was recovered for battery replacement. The total number of deployed ORCA units is now 18, as visible in the sonar scan above.

As usual, the operation was performed with two ships: the Castor of Foselev, for deployment of the detection units, and the Janus II of SAAS (formerly Comex), equipped with a deep-sea remotely operated vehicle, for submarine operations.

Many thanks to the crews offshore as well as to the team who performed the functional tests of the new detection units from the shore station!

The KM3NeT-INFRADEV2 project is launched

27 March 2023 – The kick-off Meeting of the KM3NeT-INFRADEV2 project, funded by the European Union, marked the official start of a new step toward the full implementation of the KM3NeT Research Infrastructure.

Involving institutes, laboratories and universities from France, Italy, Germany, Greece, The Netherlands, and Spain, this three-year European project aims to support the creation of a KM3NeT legal entity, accelerates the implementation of the detectors, develops the data management and open science practices of the collaboration as well as ensures a sustainable future for the infrastructure.

During the online meeting, each work package was presented to all partners involved and to Ioannis Andredakis, the Project Officer for the INFRADEV2 project from the European Research Executive Agency.

The leaders of the working groups and their team members also had the opportunity to further discuss their work together, giving a very positive start to the project.

For the next three years and thanks to the European funding, the consortium will continue firmly with the development and successful operation of the KM3NeT neutrino observatory.

 

 

 

Tamás Gál and Edward Berbee awarded the Giorgos Androulakis Prize

9 March 2023 – During the Spring KM3NeT collaboration meeting, the first-ever winners of the Giorgos Androulakis Prize were announced.

With the prize, KM3NeT recognises “exceptional contribution to the KM3NeT project that has a particularly high impact on the success or progress of KM3NeT”.

The prize is named after Giorgos Androulakis, the late KM3NeT Quality Manager, in order to commemorate Giorgos’ dedication to the project. The prize is awarded in two categories: Early-Career Scientists and Technicians & Engineers.

The winners of the KM3NeT Giorgos Androulakis Prize are:

  • in the category Early Career Scientists: Tamás Gál of ECAP, “for his prominent role and numerous contributions in the development and maintenance of essential software tools for the Collaboration, like the KM3NeT GitLab server, wiki, elog and online monitoring system,  allowing the transformation of the KM3NeT software infrastructure into a modern software system; and for his continued dedication to provide documentation and support whenever  needed in the most helpful way”
  • in the category Technicians and Engineers: Edward Berbee of Nikhef, “for his incredible set of contributions to all mechanical aspects of KM3NeT, including design, construction and testing of DOMs, DUs, LOMs, his never ending work and tireless dedication to the experiment”

Congratulations to Tamás and Edward! With many thanks for your dedication to KM3NeT.

 

The winners of the Giorgos Androulakis Prize: Tamás Gál (left) and Edward Berbee (right).

An inspiring collaboration meeting in Rome

31 October 2022 – What a week last week!

A large fraction of the KM3NeT collaboration met in Rome for a vibrant collaboration meeting, in remote connection with those who could not come in person.

The venue was Centro Ricerche Enrico Fermi, at the historical building where Enrico Fermi and his team made surprising discoveries in the ’30s. The site is also well known for a prestigious physics conference which was hosted there in 1931 and represented a milestone for nuclear research for decades. What a source of inspiration that was! It is in fact after a suggestion of Enrico Fermi that the neutrinos, those elusive particles which are the main subject of research of KM3NeT, were named so. He also formulated the first theory of weak interactions including neutrinos.

During the meeting we reviewed the progress in data analysis and in the construction of the ARCA and ORCA detectors. We also refined the plans for two new funding projects which are about to start in France and Italy – NEUMED and KM3NeT4RR – which will allow for significant extention of the two detectors.

The collaboration is growing: new research teams from Technical University of Prague (team leader: Ivan Stekl),  Comenius University of Bratislava (team leader: Fedor Simkovic) and Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique of Ben Guerir in Morocco (team leader: Ahmed Ratnani) were welcomed; and Yuri Y. Kovalev (now at MPIfR, Bonn) applied for joining as an associated member. Almost 30 new colleagues from the various international KM3NeT institutes and our new quality team, comprising quality manager Céline Pariès and quality officer Cédric Vérhilac, made their debut in a collaboration meeting.

Our management team was elected for a second two-year mandate.

With many thanks to our colleagues of La Sapienza University and INFN Rome for an excellent organisation!

 

Sea campaign for ARCA concluded: welcome, KM3NeT/ARCA19!

14 June 2022 – The sea campaign for enlarging the KM3NeT/ARCA submarine telescope has been completed with full success!

During the last few days, all detection units loaded on Handin Tide for the second phase of the operation were carefully installed on the sea bottom. This was achieved at a record-breaking speed, with 7 detection units installed, connected and unfurled in less than 48 hours!

As a result of the campaign, the size of ARCA has more than doubled. It now comprises 19 detection units in operation, equipped with more than 10,000 photomultipliers,

We thank the teams which worked tirelessly offshore and onshore to reach this remarkable success. And we can’t forget that this was made possible by the hard work ongoing in the almost 30 integration sites of the Collaboration.

The activities at sea went around the clock during the campaign.

The shore station during the campaign – more than 30 people were involved in the onshore team for this campaign.

Welcome KM3NeT/ARCA19

14 June 2022 – The sea campaign for enlarging the KM3NeT/ARCA submarine telescope which was started on June 2, has been completed today with a full success. As a result, data taking with ARCA has been resumed with 19 detection units in operation!

This represents a major step forward for the collaboration, as this was the first time that a 2-weeks campaign was performed. The scope of the operation in fact was twofold: to upgrade the submarine network, by installing 2 new junction boxes in replacement of the junction box that we had been operating so far, and to install 11 new detection units (DUs). The operation therefore took place in two steps: after the first round of activities for installation of the junction boxes and the first 4 DUs, the ship went back to shore to pick up the remaining set of 7 DUs.

The campaign was performed with Handin Tide, of the FUGRO company, which had already performed the previous sea campaign for KM3NeT/ARCA last year, sailing off from Malta.

All planned activities were performed with full success, including ancillary operations such as the replacement of one autonomous acoustic beacon on the sea floor. A speed record was also established, with 7 detection units installed, connected and unfurled in less than 48 hours!

As a result of the campaign, the size of ARCA has more than doubled: It now comprises 19 detection units in operation, equipped with more than 10,000 photomultipliers,

The KM3NeT collaboration wishes to thank the Handin Tide crew for their top-level performance, the KM3NeT teams which worked tirelessly offshore and onshore to reach this remarkable success, as well as all teams which work so hard at the almost 30 integration sites of the collaboration to produce the DUs for building the apparatus.

Below is a gallery of pictures from the campaign. A log of the activities while the operation was ongoing is available on our blog.

Detection units in the port of Malta awaiting deployment.
Loading of a detection unit onto Handin Tide.
Handin Tide leaving Malta for the first phase of the campaign.

Deployment of one of the junction boxes installed in the campaign.

The deck of Handin Tide loaded with DUs for the second phase of the campaign.
Connection of one detection unit on the sea bottom.
The onshore control station at Portopalo di Capo Passero during the campaign. More than 30 people from 10 institutes in France, Italy and the Netherlands participated in the activities onshore.

Activities at sea being resumed at the ARCA site

11 June 2022 – Due to the adverse weather conditions of the last days, the schedule of the sea campaign had to be redefined.

Here is the updated plan:

  • the ship left Malta this afternoon, to be back at the ARCA site tonight
  • the deep sea activities will be started already during the night
  • DU deployments will be started tomorrow
  • end of the operation is foreseen for early next week

Good luck to our offshore and onshore teams!

Empty LOMs (the launcher vehicles used for deployment and unfurling of the detection units) on the dock in the Malta port after the first phase of the sea campaign.
The deck of the Handin Tide loaded with detection units and their cable trays for the second phase of the campaign.
The Handin Tide leaving the port of Malta this afternoon.