KM3NeT - neutrino

ORCA is operational

8 March 2019 – Last month, the KM3NeT team of CPPM, Marseille together with the ship crews successfully installed an ORCA detection unit. It was the first unit connected to the refurbished main electro-optical cable to shore. After a few weeks of technology tests, the unit is given free for physics runs. ORCA is operational!

Unfortunately, after the deployment of one unit, the winch of the heavy lift line failed and three other units could not be deployed. They will be deployed during the next sea campaign.

In the mean time, KM3NeT researchers have taken up the duty of 24/7 shifts overlooking proper functioning of the detection units at both the ORCA and ARCA site. It is a pleasure to watch good quality data streaming to shore.

Pictures below: Four detection units in their deployment mode on deck of RV Castor (left), the package with the detection unit hanging on the heavy weight lift line just above the water surface (middle) and a plot of the signals that a down-going muon particle leaves in the detection unit: height vs the time of the recorded light signals (right).

The KM3NeT/ORCA neutrino detector is coming online

On 22 September 2017, after a two day long sea operation, the first detection unit of the ORCA neutrino telescope came online. This marks an important milestone of the scientific and technological endeavour of the international KM3NeT Collaboration.

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Poster prize for ORCA in an emerging research field

prem_model_v322 July 2016 – The KM3NeT Collaboration congratulates Simon Bourret, Astroparticle and Cosmology, Paris with the award of one of the Best Poster Prizes for his poster presented at the International ISAPP Summer Institute, 11-21 July in L’Aquila, Italy.

During 10 days at the Gran Sasso Science Institute, young physicists, geophysicists, and geologists exchanged knowledge and skills with the aim to shape an emerging inter-disciplinary field of geoscience research using methodologies from (astro)particle physics.

In his poster with the title ‘Earth Tomography with KM3NeT/ORCA’ Simon showed the potential of the ORCA detector for imaging the interior of the Earth using neutrinos penetrating the globe.

The idea is to use the ‘matter-effect’ that for neutrinos traversing the Earth will modify the pattern of oscillating from one neutrino type into another. Using this ‘matter-effect’ and studying the angular and energy distribution of these neutrinos, tomographic information of the Earth interior can be provided.  In particular, ORCA may contribute to constraining the chemical composition of Earth layers that are not accessible for direct geophysical measurements. A new research field is emerging!

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A Letter of Intent for KM3NeT 2.0

bob2_for_website 28 Jan 2016 -Today, scientists of the KM3NeT Collaboration have announced KM3NeT 2.0, their ambition for the immediate future to further exploit the clear waters of the deep Mediterranean Sea for the detection of cosmic and atmospheric neutrinos. The published Letter of Intent  details the science performance as well as the technical design of the KM3NeT 2.0 infrastructure.

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Nobel prize for discovery of neutrino oscillations

6 Oct 2015: The KM3NeT Collaboration congratulates Takaaki Kajita and Arthur B. McDonald who were awarded today the Nobel Prize in Physics 2015 “for the discovery of neutrino oscillations, which shows that neutrinos have mass”. Read the press release of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.