Neutrino interaction physics in neutrino telescopes

Neutrino telescopes can observe neutrino interactions starting at GeV energies by sampling a small fraction of the Cherenkov radiation produced by charged secondary particles. These experiments instrument volumes massive enough to collect substantial samples of neutrinos up to the TeV scale as well as small samples at the PeV scale. This unique ability of neutrino telescopes has been exploited to study the properties of neutrino interactions across energies that cannot be accessed with man-made beams. Here, we present the methods and results obtained by IceCube, the most mature neutrino telescope in operation, and offer a glimpse of what the future holds in this field.

Search for relativistic magnetic monopoles with ten years of the ANTARES detector data

The presented study is an updated search for Magnetic Monopoles (MMs) using data taken with the ANTARES neutrino telescope over a period of 10 years (January 2008 to December 2017). In accordance with some Grand Unification Theories (GUT), MMs were created during the phase of symmetry breaking in the early Universe, and accelerated by inter-galactic magnetic fields. As a consequence of their high energy, they could cross the Earth and emit a significant signal in a Cherenkov-based telescope like ANTARES, for appropriate mass and velocity ranges. This analysis a new simulation of MMs taking into account the Kasama, Yang and Goldhaber (KYG) model for their cross section with matter. The results obtained for relativistic magnetic monopoles with β = v/c ⩾ 0.817, where v is the magnetic monopole velocity and c the speed of light in vacuum, are presented.

Luminescence of Baikal water as a dynamic background of the Baikal-GVD Neutrino Telescope

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.

Proposal for fiber-optic data acquisition system for Baikal-GVD

The first stage of the construction of the Baikal-GVD deep underwater neutrino telescope is planned to be completed in 2024. For the second stage of the detector deployment, a data acquisition system based on fiber-optic technologies has been proposed, which will allow for increased data throughput and more flexible trigger conditions. A dedicated test facility has been built and deployed at the Baikal-GVD site to test the new technological solutions. We present the principles of operation and results of tests of the new data acquisition system.

Sensitivity of KM3NeT to Violation of Equivalence Principle

The symmetry of the theory of relativity under diffeomorphisms strongly depends on the equivalence principle. Violation of Equivalence Principle (VEP) can be tested by looking for deviations from the standard framework of neutrino oscillations. In recent works, it has been shown that strong constraints on the VEP parameter space can be placed by means of the atmospheric neutrinos observed by the IceCube neutrino telescope. In this paper, we focus on the KM3NeT neutrino telescope and perform a forecast analysis to assess its capacity to probe VEP. Most importantly, we examine the crucial role played by systematic uncertainties affecting the neutrino observations. We find that KM3NeT will constrain VEP parameters times the local gravitational potential at the level of 10−27. Due to the systematic-dominated regime, independent analyses from different neutrino telescopes are fundamental for robustly testing the equivalence principle.