The Baikal Gigaton Volume Detector (Baikal-GVD) is a km
3
-scale neutrino detector currently under construction in Lake Baikal, Russia. The detector consists of several thousand optical sensors ...arranged on vertical strings, with 36 sensors per string. The strings are grouped into clusters of 8 strings each. Each cluster can operate as a stand-alone neutrino detector. The detector layout is optimized for the measurement of astrophysical neutrinos with energies of
∼
100 TeV and above. Events resulting from charged current interactions of muon (anti-)neutrinos will have a track-like topology in Baikal-GVD. A fast
χ
2
-based reconstruction algorithm has been developed to reconstruct such track-like events. The algorithm has been applied to data collected in 2019 from the first five operational clusters of Baikal-GVD, resulting in observations of both downgoing atmospheric muons and upgoing atmospheric neutrinos. This serves as an important milestone towards experimental validation of the Baikal-GVD design. The analysis is limited to single-cluster data, favoring nearly-vertical tracks.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
ABSTRACT
Baikal-GVD has recently published its first measurement of the diffuse astrophysical neutrino flux, performed using high-energy cascade-like events. We further explore the Baikal-GVD cascade ...data set collected in 2018–2022, with the aim to identify possible associations between the Baikal-GVD neutrinos and known astrophysical sources. We leverage the relatively high angular resolution of the Baikal-GVD neutrino telescope (2–3 deg.), made possible by the use of liquid water as the detection medium, enabling the study of astrophysical point sources even with cascade events. We estimate the telescope’s sensitivity in the cascade channel for high-energy astrophysical sources and refine our analysis prescriptions using Monte-Carlo simulations. We primarily focus on cascades with energies exceeding 100 TeV, which we employ to search for correlation with radio-bright blazars. Although the currently limited neutrino sample size provides no statistically significant effects, our analysis suggests a number of possible associations with both extragalactic and Galactic sources. Specifically, we present an analysis of an observed triplet of neutrino candidate events in the Galactic plane, focusing on its potential connection with certain Galactic sources, and discuss the coincidence of cascades with several bright and flaring blazars.
Neutrino astronomy offers a novel view of the non-thermal Universe and is complementary to other astronomical disciplines. The field has seen rapid progress in recent years, including the first ...detection of astrophysical neutrinos in the TeV–PeV energy range by IceCube and the first identified extragalactic neutrino source (TXS 0506+056). Further discoveries are aimed for with new cubic-kilometer telescopes in the Northern Hemisphere: Baikal-GVD, in Lake Baikal, and KM3NeT-ARCA, in the Mediterranean sea. The construction of Baikal-GVD proceeds as planned; the detector currently includes over 2000 optical modules arranged on 56 strings, providing an effective volume of 0.35 km
. We review the scientific case for Baikal-GVD, the construction plan, and first results from the partially built array.
Abstract
The high-energy muon neutrino events of the IceCube telescope, that are triggered as neutrino alerts in one of two probability ranks of astrophysical origin, “gold” and “bronze”, have been ...followed up by the Baikal-GVD in a fast quasi-online mode since September 2020. Search for correlations between alerts and GVD events reconstructed in two modes, muon-track and cascades (electromagnetic or hadronic showers), for the time windows ±1 h and ±12 h does not indicate statistically significant excess of the measured events over the expected number of background events. Upper limits on the neutrino fluence will be presented for each alert.
Abstract
Baikal-GVD (Gigaton Volume Detector) is a neutrino telescope located in pure water of Lake Baikal. At the current stage (season 2021), detector is composed of 2304 optical modules arranged ...in 8 clusters. In searching for neutrino cascade events, light patterns produced via discrete stochastic energy losses along muon tracks create the most abundant background. Methods to separate cascade-like events from tracks and neutrino cascades in a single cluster have been developed and optimized. One of the method tries to find the maximum number of track hits amongst cascade hits, which are present in the muon bundle event. Other ones rely on the distributions of charges and positions of hits on optical modules associated with cascade events. All suppression methods were optimized by the Monte Carlo simulation datasets.
Abstract
The Baikal-GVD is a neutrino telescope situated in the deepest freshwater lake in the world — Lake Baikal. The design of the Baikal-GVD trigger system allows also to study the ambient light ...of the lake. The analysis of the optical light activity of Baikal water, particularly, time and spatial variations of the luminescence activity for data collected in years 2018, 2019, and 2020 is presented. For the first time we observed highly luminescent layer moving upwards with maximal speed of 28 m/day in January 2021.
Abstract
The Large-scale deep underwater Cherenkov neutrino telescopes like Baikal-GVD, ANTARES or KM3NeT, require calibration and testing methods of their optical modules. These methods usually ...include laser-based systems which allow us to check the telescope responses to the light and for real-time monitoring of the optical parameters of water such as absorption and scattering lengths, which show seasonal changes in natural reservoirs of water. We will present a testing method of a laser calibration system and a set of dedicated tools developed for Baikal-GVD, which includes a specially designed and built, compact, portable, and reconfigurable scanning station. This station is adapted to perform fast quality tests of the underwater laser sets just before their deployment in the telescope structure, even on ice, without a darkroom. The testing procedure includes the energy stability test of the laser device, 3D scan of the light emission from the diffuser and attenuation test of the optical elements of the laser calibration system. The test bench consists primarily of an automatic mechanical scanner with a movable Si detector, beam splitter with a reference Si detector and, optionally, Q-switched diode-pumped solid-state laser used for laboratory scans of the diffusers. The presented test bench enables a 3D scan of the light emission from diffusers, which are designed to obtain the isotropic distribution of photons around the point of emission. The results of the measurement can be easily shown on a 3D plot immediately after the test and may be also implemented to a dedicated program simulating photons propagation in water, which allows us to check the quality of the diffuser in the scale of the Baikal-GVD telescope geometry.
Time synchronization system of Baikal-GVD Allakhverdyan, V.A.; Avrorin, A.D.; Avrorin, A.V. ...
Journal of instrumentation,
09/2021, Letnik:
16, Številka:
9
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The Baikal-GVD neutrino telescope currently consists of 8 clusters of 288 optical modules (photodetectors). One cluster comprises 8 strings, each of which is subdivided into 3 sections of 12 optical ...modules. This paper presents the methods of time synchronization between the different GVD components (optical modules, sections, clusters) and estimations of time synchronization accuracy.
The existence of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos has been unambiguously demonstrated, but their sources remain elusive. IceCube reported an association of a 290-TeV neutrino with a gamma-ray ...flare of TXS 0506+056, an active galactic nucleus with a compact radio jet pointing to us. Later, radio blazars were shown to be associated with IceCube neutrino events with high statistical significance. These associations remained unconfirmed with the data of independent experiments. Here we report on the detection of a rare neutrino event with the estimated energy of 224 +- 75 TeV from the direction of TXS 0506+056 by the new Baikal-GVD neutrino telescope in April 2021 followed by a radio flare observed by RATAN-600. This event is the highest-energy cascade detected so far by Baikal-GVD from a direction below horizon. The result supports previous suggestions that radio blazars in general, and TXS 0506+056 in particular, are the sources of high-energy neutrinos, and opens up the cascade channel for the neutrino astronomy.
PDF
