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.
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.
Astronomy potential of KM3NeT/ARCA Albert, A.; Alves Garre, S.; Ameli, F. ...
The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields,
2/9, Letnik:
84, Številka:
9
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The KM3NeT/ARCA neutrino detector is currently under construction at 3500 m depth offshore Capo Passero, Sicily, in the Mediterranean Sea. The main science objectives are the detection of high-energy ...cosmic neutrinos and the discovery of their sources. Simulations were conducted for the full KM3NeT/ARCA detector, instrumenting a volume of 1 km
3
, to estimate the sensitivity and discovery potential to point-like neutrino sources. This paper covers the reconstruction of track- and shower-like signatures, as well as the criteria employed for neutrino event selection. With an angular resolution below 0.1
∘
for tracks and under 2
∘
for showers, the sensitivity to point-like neutrino sources surpasses existing observed limits across the entire sky.
The measurement of the flux of muons produced in cosmic ray air showers is essential for the study of primary cosmic rays. Such measurements are important in extensive air shower detectors to assess ...the energy spectrum and the chemical composition of the cosmic ray flux, complementary to the information provided by fluorescence detectors. Detailed simulations of the cosmic ray air showers are carried out, using codes such as CORSIKA, to estimate the muon flux at sea level. These simulations are based on the choice of hadronic interaction models, for which improvements have been implemented in the post-LHC era. In this work, a deficit in simulations that use state-of-the-art QCD models with respect to the measurement deep underwater with the KM3NeT neutrino detectors is reported. The KM3NeT/ARCA and KM3NeT/ORCA neutrino telescopes are sensitive to TeV muons originating mostly from primary cosmic rays with energies around 10 TeV. The predictions of state-of-the-art QCD models show that the deficit with respect to the data is constant in zenith angle; no dependency on the water overburden is observed. The observed deficit at a depth of several kilometres is compatible with the deficit seen in the comparison of the simulations and measurements at sea level.
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.
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.
Deep-Water Neutrino Telescope in Lake Baikal Allakhverdyan, V. A.; Avrorin, A. D.; Avrorin, A. V. ...
Physics of atomic nuclei,
12/2021, Letnik:
84, Številka:
9
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The Baikal-GVD deep-water neutrino telescope of the cubic kilometer scale, focused on research in the field of astrophysics and particle physics, is being built in Lake Baikal. As of 2021, the ...effective volume of the detector reaches 0.4 km
3
for cascades generated by high-energy astrophysical neutrinos. The paper describes the design and basic characteristics of the telescope data acquisition system, discusses some aspects of deep-water engineering related to the deployment of the detector, and presents selected results obtained with the partially complete detector.
European Physical Journal C 84, 112 (2024) The Cherenkov Telescope Array and the KM3NeT neutrino telescopes are major
upcoming facilities in the fields of $\gamma$-ray and neutrino astronomy,
...respectively. Possible simultaneous production of $\gamma$ rays and neutrinos
in astrophysical accelerators of cosmic-ray nuclei motivates a combination of
their data. We assess the potential of a combined analysis of CTA and KM3NeT
data to determine the contribution of hadronic emission processes in known
Galactic $\gamma$-ray emitters, comparing this result to the cases of two
separate analyses. In doing so, we demonstrate the capability of Gammapy, an
open-source software package for the analysis of $\gamma$-ray data, to also
process data from neutrino telescopes. For a selection of prototypical
$\gamma$-ray sources within our Galaxy, we obtain models for primary proton and
electron spectra in the hadronic and leptonic emission scenario, respectively,
by fitting published $\gamma$-ray spectra. Using these models and instrument
response functions for both detectors, we employ the Gammapy package to
generate pseudo data sets, where we assume 200 hours of CTA observations and 10
years of KM3NeT detector operation. We then apply a three-dimensional binned
likelihood analysis to these data sets, separately for each instrument and
jointly for both. We find that the largest benefit of the combined analysis
lies in the possibility of a consistent modelling of the $\gamma$-ray and
neutrino emission. Assuming a purely leptonic scenario as input, we obtain, for
the most favourable source, an average expected 68% credible interval that
constrains the contribution of hadronic processes to the observed $\gamma$-ray
emission to below 15%.
Reconstructed tracks of muons produced in neutrino interactions provide the precise probe for the neutrino direction. Therefore, track-like events are a powerful tool to search for neutrino point ...sources. Recently, Baikal-GVD has demonstrated the first sample of low-energy neutrino candidate events extracted from the data of the season 2019 in a so-called single-cluster analysis - treating each cluster as an independent detector. In this paper, the extension of the track-like event analysis to a wider data set is discussed and the first high-energy track-like events are demonstrated. The status of multi-cluster track reconstruction and that of the event analysis are also discussed.
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