Wednesday 31 October

Speaker: Gregory Hallewell   (CPP Marseille)

Title:    KM3NeT, A Cubic Kilometre-scale Deep-sea Telescope
SubTitle: for Neutrino Astronomy

Abstract: The groups presently pursuing neutrino telescope projects in the Mediterranean sea; ANTARES, NEMO and NESTOR, have formed the new E-U funded 'KM3NeT' design study for a cubic kilometre-scale neutrino telescope in the Northern hemisphere to complement the sky coverage of the ICE CUBE telescope implanted in the South pole ice sheet. This challenging project, requiring the installation of thousands of light detectors, their related electronics and calibration systems several kilometres below the Mediterrranean sea, will provide the scientific community with a very powerful instrument to study many astrophysical objects, including supernova explosions, active galactic nuclei, gamma-ray bursts and possibly also dark matter. The construction of KM3NeT will require the solution of technological problems common to many deep submarine installations, and will help pave the way for other deep-sea research facilities. The status and propects for the KM3NeT project and technical aspects related to its deep-sea infrastructure, deployment and operation are reviewed.