Abstract
The DUMAND proposal to place an array of 216 photomultipliers at a depth of 4.7 km in the ocean off the island of Hawaii has received the endorsement of the U.S. High Energy Physics Advisory Panel. This array, called the Octagon, will have an effective area for muons from astronomical neutrinos of 20,000 m 2 and an angular resolution of 1°. Because of its location and depth, the Octagon will have 100% sky coverage. It is anticipated that cosmic sources of very high energy particle acceleration, such as Cygnus X-3 and Hercules X-1, will be detectable by the neutrinos, and possibly also by the γ-rays, emitted by these sources. The capabilities of underground and underwater muon detectors to detect muons from cosmic γ-rays is estimated. It is shown that, if very high energy γN interactions in the atmosphere produce anomalous muons at least 3% of the time, the DUMAND Octagon will be large enough to detect γ-rays at currently observed flux levels.
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