Dependence of atmospheric muon flux on seawater depth measured with the first KM3NeT detection units

• Published in: The European Physical Journal C
• Main Authors: M. Ageron, S. Aiello, F. Ameli, M. Andre, G. Androulakis, M. Anghinolfi, G. Anton, M. Ardid, J. Aublin, C. Bagatelas, G. Barbarino, B. Baret, S. Basegmez du Pree, A. Belias, E. Berbee, A. M. van den Berg, V. Bertin, V. van Beveren, S. Biagi, A. Biagioni, S. Bianucci, M. Billault, M. Bissinger, R. de Boer, J. Boumaaza, S. Bourret, M. Bouta, M. Bouwhuis, C. Bozza, H. Brânzaş, M. Briel, M. Bruchner, R. Bruijn, J. Brunner, E. Buis, R. Buompane, J. Busto, G. Cacopardo, L. Caillat, C. Calì, D. Calvo, A. Capone, S. Celli, M. Chabab, N. Chau, S. Cherubini, V. Chiarella, T. Chiarusi, M. Circella, R. Cocimano
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: SpringerOpen 2020
• Subjects: Astrophysics; QB460-466; Nuclear and particle physics. Atomic energy. Radioactivity; QC770-798; Orca
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-020-7629-z; https://doaj.org/article/1d674fc7e20f43838e4f3b324693857b

Abstract KM3NeT is a research infrastructure located in the Mediterranean Sea, that will consist of two deep-sea Cherenkov neutrino detectors. With one detector (ARCA), the KM3NeT Collaboration aims at identifying and studying TeV–PeV astrophysical neutrino sources. With the other detector (ORCA), the neutrino mass ordering will be determined by studying GeV-scale atmospheric neutrino oscillations. The first KM3NeT detection units were deployed at the Italian and French sites between 2015 and 2017. In this paper, a description of the detector is presented, together with a summary of the procedures used to calibrate the detector in-situ. Finally, the measurement of the atmospheric muon flux between 2232–3386 m seawater depth is obtained.