KM3NeT — a European collaboration pioneering the deployment of kilometre cubed arrays of neutrino detectors off the Mediterranean coast — has reported in detail on the scientific aims, technology and costs of its proposal.
Neutrinos are ideal messengers from the cosmos. These stable, sub-atomic particles can travel long distances without being disturbed by matter or magnetic fields in their path.
Their detection is prized by astronomers as neutrino-emitting sources such as the remnants of Super Nova explosions provide important clues to the evolution of our universe. The study of neutrinos could also help in expanding our knowledge of atomic physics. However, there is a catch.
The KM3NeT collaboration has developed what it believes is a cost-effective plan for building out this research infrastructure at the bottom of the sea.
The phased rolled-out will consist of three so-called building blocks, where each building block comprises 115 strings of 18 optical modules (glass spheres containing 31 outward-facing photomultiplier tubes).
The array will provide a large piece of the puzzle required to monitor the whole of the sky for incoming neutrinos, linking existing telescopes based under the South Pole (IceCube) and in Lake Baikal, Russia (Gigaton Volume Detector — GVD).
It has already raised EURO 31 million to begin phase one of the project.