KM3NeT Project

GS 3 – Science and technology

Overview: Scientists are deploying two telescopes as part of the Cubic Kilometre Neutrino Telescope (KM3NeT) project to detect high-energy neutrinos, also known as ghost particles, beneath the Mediterranean Sea.

• The KM3NeT is a research infrastructure that hosts next-generation neutrino telescopes with a volume of at least one cubic kilometre.
• The telescopes utilize Cherenkov radiation, which is the light emitted when neutrinos interact with water or ice molecules, to study the particles.
• As a European research infrastructure, KM3NeT is located in the Mediterranean Sea and involves collaboration among multiple countries.

Key Components:

1. ARCA (Astroparticle Research with Cosmics in the Abyss):
   • Located offshore Sicily, Italy.
   • Focuses on detecting neutrinos from distant astrophysical sources, such as supernovae, gamma-ray bursters, and colliding stars.
2. ORCA (Oscillation Research with Cosmics in the Abyss):
   • Located offshore France.
   • This telescope is focused on studying the properties of neutrinos generated in the Earth’s atmosphere.

These telescopes operate similarly to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica, which detects high-energy neutrinos from deep space but is located beneath the ice, rather than underwater. Both systems aim to explore the properties of neutrinos, which are subatomic particles that are notoriously difficult to detect.

Detection Method:

• The KM3NeT telescopes will use arrays of thousands of optical sensors to detect faint light in the deep sea, which originates from the collisions of neutrinos with Earth’s molecules. This light is an indication of charged particles produced by the neutrino interactions.

IceCube Neutrino Observatory

• The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is located at the South Pole and detects neutrinos, subatomic particles that travel at nearly the speed of light.
• Built and maintained by the IceCube Collaboration, it involves 350 physicists from 58 institutions across 14 countries, led by the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
• The IceCube team addresses significant questions in physics, such as the nature of dark matter and the properties of neutrinos themselves.