PORTOPALO DI CAPO PASSERO – The first nucleus of the KM3NeT telescope is ready, which from the depths of the Mediterranean is preparing to hunt down the most elusive cosmic particles, neutrinos. In fact, the operations to expand the submarine infrastructure located off the Sicilian coast of Capo Passero, at a depth of 3,500 kilometers, have been completed and the first six units of the telescope are operational. The project is the result of an international collaboration made up of about 60 research centers and in which Italy participates with the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (Infn). It is also one of the major European research infrastructures of the ESFRI roadmap (European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures).
The new components installed at the lake of Sicily are the first nucleus of the Arca telescope (Astroparticle Research with Cosmics in the Abyss), destined to constitute the KM3NeT with the French submarine telescope Orca (Oscillation Research with Cosmics in the Abyss) and together they will constitute a telescope of the volume of one cubic kilometer that will use sea water as a “detector” for cosmic neutrinos, produced in the universe by catastrophic events. Since neutrinos are the most difficult particles to capture as they interact very little with matter, large detectors are required to observe them.
In its final configuration, the KM3NeT telescope provides a network of over 200 detection strings, each 700 meters high and with 18 optical modules equipped with ultra-sensitive light sensors capable of recording, in the deepest darkness of the Mediterranean abysses, the very weak flashes of light generated by the particles produced by the interactions of cosmic neutrinos with water. In total, six detection strings are now in operation, representing the initial core of the telescopes, in addition to the six in the Orca apparatus.
The installation of five new detector strings and the installation of a structure to supply electrical power and allow submarine connections were made possible thanks to the Idmar project, funded by the Sicily Region for the enhancement of the region’s maritime research infrastructures. The components, protected by a spherical structure, were lowered to a depth of 3,500 meters, anchored to the seabed and connected to the ground station, before being deployed in their final configuration: operations that required a week-long marine campaign. A campaign that “gave a spectacular demonstration of the excellent results achieved by the KM3NeT collaboration in the development of suitable solutions for technological companies of this magnitude”, observes Giacomo Cuttone, INFN researcher and scientific director of the Idmar project.
“Thanks to these results, the Mediterranean Sea, in addition to being an ecosystem to be defended and from which to start again for the social and industrial growth of Sicily, Italy and Europe, becomes a great research laboratory to study the secrets of the universe », Observes Simone Biagi, researcher of the Infn National Laboratories of the South and site manager for KM3NeT-Italy, who was part of the team that managed the operation.
The measurement lines have been integrated at the National Laboratories of the South and the Genoa and Naples sections of the Infn, while the optical modules come from the integration sites of the program which are also located in Italy, in Catania and Naples, the base were made in the Infn section of Bologna and the sections of Bari and Rome, with the connected group Infn of Salerno contributed to the realization of the electronic and mechanical components of the lines.