Abstract
Neutrino astronomy beyond the Sun was first imagined in the late 1950s; by the 1970s, it was realized that kilometer-scale neutrino detectors were required. The first such instrument, IceCube, transforms a cubic kilometer of deep and ultra-transparent Antarctic ice into a particle detector. KM3NeT, an instrument that aims to exploit several cubic kilometers of the deep Mediterranean sea as its detector medium, is in its final design stages. The scientific missions of these instruments include searching for sources of cosmic rays and for dark matter, observing Galactic supernova explosions, and studying the neutrinos themselves. Identifying the accelerators that produce Galactic and extragalactic cosmic rays has been a priority mission of several generations of high-energy gamma-ray and neutrino telescopes; success has been elusive so far. Detecting the gamma-ray and neutrino fluxes associated with cosmic rays reaches a new watershed with the completion of IceCube, the first neutrino detector with sensitivity to the anticipated fluxes. In this paper, we will first revisit the rationale for constructing kilometer-scale neutrino detectors. We will subsequently recall the methods for determining the arrival direction, energy and flavor of neutrinos, and will subsequently describe the architecture of the IceCube and KM3NeT detectors.
Highlights
Soon after the 1956 observation of the neutrino [1], the idea emerged that it represented the ideal astronomical messenger
By the 1970s, it was clear that a cubic-kilometer detector was needed to observe cosmic neutrinos produced in the interactions of cosmic rays with background microwave photons [3]
Newer estimates for observing potential cosmic accelerators such as Galactic supernova remnants and gamma-ray bursts point to the same exigent requirement [4,5,6]
Summary
Soon after the 1956 observation of the neutrino [1], the idea emerged that it represented the ideal astronomical messenger. Having essentially no mass and no electric charge, the neutrino is similar to the photon, except for one important attribute: its interactions with matter are extremely feeble. High-energy neutrinos may reach us unscathed from cosmic distances, from the inner neighborhood of black holes, and, hopefully, from the nuclear furnaces where cosmic rays are born. Their weak interactions make cosmic neutrinos very difficult to detect. Immense particle detectors are required to collect cosmic neutrinos in statistically significant numbers [2]. By the 1970s, it was clear that a cubic-kilometer detector was needed to observe cosmic neutrinos produced in the interactions of cosmic rays with background microwave photons [3].
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