Speaker
Robert Lahmann
(Friedrich-Alexander-Univ. Erlangen (DE))
Description
The acoustic neutrino detection technique is a promising approach for future large-scale detectors with the aim of measuring the small expected flux of cosmogenic neutrinos at energies in the EeV-range and above. The technique is based on the thermo-acoustic model, which implies that the energy deposition by a particle cascade - resulting from a neutrino interaction in a medium with suitable thermal and acoustic properties - leads to a local heating and a subsequent characteristic pressure pulse that propagates in the surrounding medium. The main advantage of using sound for the detection of neutrino interactions, as opposed to Cherenkov light, lies in the much longer attenuation length of the former type of radiation - several kilometers for sound compared to several tens of meters for light in the respective frequency ranges of interest in sea water.
Current or recent test setups for acoustic neutrino detection have either been add-ons to optical neutrino telescopes or have been using acoustic arrays built for other purposes, typically for military use. While these arrays have been too small to derive competitive limits on neutrino fluxes, they allowed for detailed studies of the experimental technique. In particular with the AMADEUS acoustic array of the Cherenkov neutrino telescopes ANTARES in the Mediterranean Sea, long term measurements of the acoustic ambient noise and transient background were performed. These allowed for Monte Carlo simulations of potential future neutrino telescopes.
With the advent of the research infrastructure KM3NeT in the Mediterranean Sea, new possibilities will arise for acoustic neutrino detection. A point in time has been reached where preexisting test setups for acoustic neutrino detection in sea water can be denoted "first generation setups". In this presentation results from these acoustic arrays will be summarized and prospects and implications for the future of acoustic neutrino detection will be discussed.
Summary
In this presentation, results from test setups for acoustic neutrino detection in sea water will be summarized and prospects and implications for the future of acoustic neutrino detection will be discussed.
Primary author
Robert Lahmann
(Friedrich-Alexander-Univ. Erlangen (DE))
