ANTARES switched off
On February 14th, 2022, after 16 years of continuous operation, the first deep sea neutrino telescope, ANTARES, was powered down for the last time.
Here some more detailed information taken for the ANTARES webpage:
The IceCube collaboration has recently reported the detection of an event IceCube-211208A with moderate probability (signalness 50.2%) to be explained by an astrophysical neutrino with a most probable energy of 172 TeV (GCN #31191). A prominent radio and gamma-ray blazar PKS 0735+17 is located just outside the 90% PSF containment of the IceCube event, including the expected systematic uncertainty of the determination of the arrival direction. The blazar was found to experience a strong flare in gamma rays (ATel #15099>), X-rays (ATel #15102, #15108, #15109), optical (ATel #15098, #15100) and radio (ATel #15099) bands. No additional neutrino events from the direction of the alert have been reported by IceCube (GCN #31195) and ANTARES (ATel #15106).
1) Sea campaign completed - 10 detection units in operation at ORCA!
At November 22, a successful sea operation at the ORCA site was completed. The campaign had started at Nov. 18. After a stand-by of 24 hours, due to uncertain weather conditions, the Castor and the Janus vessel left the French coast and headed to the KM3NeT/ORCA site. Onboard the Castor were seven new detection units (DUs) and one autonomous acoustic beacon. The Janus was instead equipped with a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV), which was maneuvered from the ship to perform the deep-sea action: inspection of the submarine structures and connections of the new detection units to the already installed submarine network.
ANTARES
Yahya Tayalati, professor at the University Mohammed V in Rabat and principal investigator of ANTARES and KM3NeT in Morocco has been awarded the prestigious Mustafa Prize. This is a top science and technology award, granted biennially to the researchers and scientists of the Islamic world. Yahya was selected together with 4 other recipients among more than 500 candidates. He received the award for his contribution in beyond standard model physics, especially the “Observation of the Light by Light Scattering and the Search for Magnetic Monopoles”. In addition to being one of the leaders of the dark matter group in the two collaborations, Yahya is leading integration activities for KM3NeT DOMs at two different sites in Morocco.
Taking data, nothing special...
ANTARES is smoothly taking data and continues to play a successful role in various multi-messenger and alert programs. However, given the configurations of ORCA and ARCA now operating, the termination of ANTARES operation will happen at the next favorable occasion. The latter is not yet firmly scheduled.
ANTARES/KM3NeT had a 2-week Collaboration Meeting (7-18 June, via zoom) hosted by LPC Caen, France. The main focus was on finalizing results for ICRC.
Two new institutions have joined KM3NeT as new associate members:
Laboratoire d’Informatique & Systemes, Univ. Toulon, France, interested in bioacoustics data,
Instituto de Ciencias del Mar (ICM), Barcelona, Spain, interested in bioluminescence studies.
This year’s VLVnT was a great success. With 285 registered participants and typically 140 of them dialed in during the plenary talks this was the VLVnT with the largest attendance ever.
On April 8 – 15, the KM3NeT collaboration has successfully deployed five strings at the ARCA site and is operating now a configuration of six strings. Congratulations! Read the report from Simone Biagi (LNS Catania) who was one of the five KM3NeT members on board:
Despite COVID difficulties, the ARCA junction box and five Detection units (DUs) are ready to be deployed. The deployment vessel will set sail from Malta on April 8 for a week-long sea operation.
While the shore station at Lake Baikal is filling up more and more with physicists and technicians, the winterovers remaining at the Amundsen-Scott station waved farewell to the last airplane leaving for McMurdo at the Antarctic coast.
Below two pictures from this season’s first excursion to the location of the Baikal ice camp.
