Search of an ultra high energy neutrino diffuse flux with ANTARES telescope

• Main Author: Core, L.
• Other Authors: ANTARES, Centre de Physique des Particules de Marseille (CPPM), Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (IN2P3)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (IN2P3)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Aix-Marseille Université, Jean-Pierre Ernenwein([e-mail]), Antares
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2013
• Subjects: cosmic neutrinos; ultra-high energy range; cosmogenic neutrinos; neutrinos cosmiques; ANTARES; très hautes energies; Waxman-Bahcall; neutrinos cosmogeniques; [SDU.ASTR.IM]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph]/Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysic [astro-ph.IM]; [PHYS.ASTR.IM]Physics [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph]/Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysic [astro-ph.IM]; Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00969098; https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00969098/document; https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00969098/file/Laura_Core_version.pdf

The ANTARES high-energy neutrino telescope is a three-dimensional array of photomultipliers distributed over 12 lines, installed on the seabed in the Mediterranean Sea. The detector has been operated in partial configurations since March 2006 and the deployment was completed in May 2008. The main goal of the experiment is the search for high-energy neutrinos from astrophysical sources. A neutrino telescope in the Northern hemisphere includes the Galactic Center in its field of view and it can be seen as complement to the IceCube Antarctic telescope. The detector is optimized for the detection of muon neutrinos, since at energies above 1 TeV muons resulting from charged current interactions can travel kilometers and are almost collinear with the parent neutrinos. Ultra high energy neutrinos can have different origins: they could be created during the interaction of high energetic cosmic rays with the CMB or cosmological phenomena such as supernova remnants or AGNs. There are other possible sources due to new theories in the field of physics beyond the Standard Model. In my third year of PhD, I have performed the search for ultra high energy (in the energetic range of 100 PeV-10 EeV) extraterrestrial muon neutrinos from unresolved sources. If the sensitivity of point source search techniques is too small to detect neutrino fluxes from individual celestial bodies, it is possible that the sources all together could produce an excess of events over the expected atmospheric neutrino background and recognizable as a UHE signal. The sensitivity of the ANTARES detector to diffuse neutrinos is evaluated from MonteCarlo simulations, a dedicated production in the energy range written above. Neutrino absorption by the Earth for energies greater than PeV had been taken into account, so the search for the astrophysical signal is restricted near the horizon. In this angular zone the most severe source of background are the atmospheric neutrinos, but also atmospheric muons which, even very reduced in number, can feign a cosmic ...