The Protvino accelerator facility located in the Moscow region, Russia, is in a good position to offer a rich experimental research program in the field of neutrino physics. Of particular interest is ...the possibility to direct a neutrino beam from Protvino towards the KM3NeT/ORCA detector, which is currently under construction in the Mediterranean Sea 40 km offshore Toulon, France. This proposal is known as P2O. Thanks to its baseline of 2595 km, this experiment would yield an unparalleled sensitivity to matter effects in the Earth, allowing for the determination of the neutrino mass ordering with a high level of certainty after only a few years of running at a modest beam intensity of
≈
90
kW
. With a prolonged exposure (
≈
1500
kW
year
), a
2
σ
sensitivity to the leptonic CP-violating Dirac phase can be achieved. A second stage of the experiment, comprising a further intensity upgrade of the accelerator complex and a densified version of the ORCA detector (Super-ORCA), would allow for up to a
6
σ
sensitivity to CP violation and a
10
∘
-
17
∘
resolution on the CP phase after 10 years of running with a 450 kW beam, competitive with other planned experiments. The initial composition and energy spectrum of the neutrino beam would need to be monitored by a near detector, to be constructed several hundred meters downstream from the proton beam target. The same neutrino beam and near detector set-up would also allow for neutrino-nucleus cross section measurements to be performed. A short-baseline sterile neutrino search experiment would also be possible.
Massive star-forming regions assemble a large number of young stars with remnants of stellar evolution and a very dense environment. Therefore, particles accelerated in supernova remnants and pulsar ...wind nebulae encounter optimal conditions for interacting with target material and photon fields, and thus produce gamma-ray emission. However, observations are challenging because multiple phenomena may appear entangled within the resolution of current gamma-ray telescopes. We report on MAGIC observations aimed to understand the nature of the emission from the star-forming region W51 and the unidentified source HESS J1857+026. While gamma-ray emission from W51 is dominated by the interaction of the supernova remnant W51C with dense molecular clouds, HESS J1857+026 is associated to the pulsar wind nebula from PSR J1856+0245. However, an additional source is resolved north of HESSJ1857+026, with sufficient separation to determine that it cannot be powered by the same pulsar. We search for multiwavelength data to determine the origin of the new source.
Cosmic ray interactions can be investigated indirectly in gamma ray astronomy, with the observation of spectral and morphological features of certain classes of sources. MAGIC is a stereoscopic ...system of two gamma ray telescopes, located at La Palma (Canaries), with access to the energy window between 50 GeV and 30 TeV. Sources of high relevance for the study of very high energy hadronic interactions are active galactic nuclei, as blazars and radio galaxies. MAGIC has detectedabout fifty such extragalactic objects; we will present some where theemission is explained with accelerated hadrons in interaction with ambient photons. We will also mention cosmic ray acceleration in galaxy clusters. Other than that, hadron-hadron interactions are supposed to take place in some supernova remnants in interaction with surrounding molecular clouds; we will show some results, in connection with cosmic rays of galactic origin. Finally, about other possible components, we will mention the measurement of the diffuse electron and positron spectrum. Trustingly, the close connection between particle physics and astrophysics will contribute in future years to many new interesting observations.
Supermassive black holes with masses of millions to billions of solar masses are commonly found in the centers of galaxies. Astronomers seek to image jet formation using radio interferometry but ...still suffer from insufficient angular resolution. An alternative method to resolve small structures is to measure the time variability of their emission. Here we report on gamma-ray observations of the radio galaxy IC 310 obtained with the MAGIC (Major Atmospheric Gamma-ray Imaging Cherenkov) telescopes, revealing variability with doubling time scales faster than 4.8 min. Causality constrains the size of the emission region to be smaller than 20% of the gravitational radius of its central black hole. We suggest that the emission is associated with pulsar-like particle acceleration by the electric field across a magnetospheric gap at the base of the radio jet.
This article reports the first observation of the Moon and the Sun shadows in the sky distribution of cosmic-ray induced muons measured by the KM3NeT/ORCA detector. The analysed data-taking period ...spans from February 2020 to November 2021, when the detector had 6 Detection Units deployed at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, each composed of 18 Digital Optical Modules. The shadows induced by the Moon and the Sun were detected at their nominal position with a statistical significance of 4.2
σ
and 6.2
σ
, and an angular resolution of
σ
res
=
0
.
49
∘
and
σ
res
=
0
.
66
∘
, respectively, consistent with the prediction of
0
.
53
∘
from simulations. This early result confirms the effectiveness of the detector calibration, in time, position and orientation and the accuracy of the event direction reconstruction. This also demonstrates the performance and the competitiveness of the detector in terms of pointing accuracy and angular resolution.
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.
A
bstract
In the era of precision measurements of the neutrino oscillation parameters, upcoming neutrino experiments will also be sensitive to physics beyond the Standard Model. KM3NeT/ORCA is a ...neutrino detector optimised for measuring atmospheric neutrinos from a few GeV to around 100 GeV. In this paper, the sensitivity of the KM3NeT/ORCA detector to neutrino decay has been explored. A three-flavour neutrino oscillation scenario, where the third neutrino mass state
ν
3
decays into an invisible state, e.g. a sterile neutrino, is considered. We find that KM3NeT/ORCA would be sensitive to invisible neutrino decays with 1
/α
3
=
τ
3
/m
3
<
180 ps
/
eV at 90% confidence level, assuming true normal ordering. Finally, the impact of neutrino decay on the precision of KM3NeT/ORCA measurements for
θ
23
,
Δ
m
31
2
and mass ordering have been studied. No significant effect of neutrino decay on the sensitivity to these measurements has been found.
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