ANTARES aims, status and prospects Susan Cartwright University of Sheffield

Outline Principles of neutrino telescopes Principles of neutrino telescopes The ANTARES Detector The ANTARES Detector Results from current deployment Results from current deployment Expected physics performance Expected physics performance Conclusions Conclusions

Neutrino telescopes Basic principle Basic principle  instrument natural body of water (ocean, ice cap) to act as water Cherenkov experiment  sensitive to high energy muon neutrinos sparsely instrumented, so need long track sparsely instrumented, so need long track  highly directional for high energy neutrinos, muon direction = neutrino direction for high energy neutrinos, muon direction = neutrino direction

Aims and problems (general) Aim: detect high energy neutrinos from astrophysical sources Aim: detect high energy neutrinos from astrophysical sources  “beam dump” sources (proton accelerators)  particle sources (χχ annihilation, decays of heavy exotics) Problems: Problems:  cosmic ray muon background go deep, look down go deep, look down  atmospheric neutrino background  light transmission/backgrounds in natural water

ANTARES Located off southern France in 2.4 km deep water Located off southern France in 2.4 km deep water Extensive site evaluation programme, 1996–2002 Extensive site evaluation programme, 1996–2002  water quality  rates and backgrounds  site survey Infrastructure and prototype deployment, 2001–2005 Infrastructure and prototype deployment, 2001–2005 Fully deployed by 2007 Fully deployed by 2007

ANTARES deployment laying the cable Junction Box deployment sector line tests sector line deployment submarine connection

Underwater now… Made in Sheffield!

Data from MILOM Environment Environment backgrounds: 40 K content of seawater continuous bioluminescence bioluminescence bursts

Data from MILOM Performance Performance single photo- electron peak

Sky coverage of ANTARES located in mid-northern latitudes, so see southern sky complementary to AMANDA/ IceCube at South Pole

Expected physics performance

point source searches

Expected physics performance Angular resolution dominated by intrinsic μ−ν for E < 10 TeV, ~0.2° for high E Angular resolution dominated by intrinsic μ−ν for E < 10 TeV, ~0.2° for high E Critical for identifying any observed point source Critical for identifying any observed point source

Possible sources Same candidates as UHE cosmic-ray sources Same candidates as UHE cosmic-ray sources  blazars subspecies of active galactic nuclei subspecies of active galactic nuclei  gamma-ray bursts  young supernova remnants  microquasars accreting binary systems producing relativistic jet outflows accreting binary systems producing relativistic jet outflows

Effect of neutrino mass Direct mass effects Direct mass effects  none worth mentioning! Oscillation effects Oscillation effects  “beam dump” sources produce muon neutrinos through pion decay  these will oscillate to tau neutrinos this reduces efficiency this reduces efficiency tau neutrinos can be tagged through “double bang” effects, but ANTARES is too small (can be done in IceCube) tau neutrinos can be tagged through “double bang” effects, but ANTARES is too small (can be done in IceCube) note high energy threshold → no supernova or solar neutrinos

Dark matter via neutrinos WIMPs travel at around 200 km/s WIMPs travel at around 200 km/s  scattering in Sun or Earth may slow them enough for gravitational capture  accumulate in core  annihilation produces neutrino signal via χχ →ZZ, tt, bb, etc. in decreasing order of ANTARES’ sensitivity! in decreasing order of ANTARES’ sensitivity!  flavour democratic, oscillation not important

Dark matter search in mSUGRA models Sun is best “standard” source Sun is best “standard” source  up to several thousand muons per km 2 per year mainly WW and ZZ mainly tt SuSpect + DarkSUSY, Nezri et al

Conclusions AMANDA/IceCube has proven feasibility of high-energy neutrino astrophysics AMANDA/IceCube has proven feasibility of high-energy neutrino astrophysics ANTARES will provide complementary sky coverage ANTARES will provide complementary sky coverage  string deployment 2006/7  EU FP6 Design Study programme for scale-up to cubic kilometre (KM3NET) solar neutrinos turned out to be a way of studying neutrinos using astrophysics solar neutrinos turned out to be a way of studying neutrinos using astrophysics high energy neutrinos will be a way to study astrophysics with neutrinos high energy neutrinos will be a way to study astrophysics with neutrinos