First observation of the cosmic ray shadow of the Moon and the Sun with KM3NeT/ORCA

• Published in: The European Physical Journal C
• Main Authors: S. Aiello, A. Albert, S. Alves Garre, Z. Aly, A. Ambrosone, F. Ameli, M. Andre, M. Anghinolfi, M. Anguita, M. Ardid, S. Ardid, J. Aublin, C. Bagatelas, L. Bailly-Salins, B. Baret, S. Basegmez du Pree, Y. Becherini, M. Bendahman, F. Benfenati, E. Berbee, V. Bertin, S. Biagi, M. Boettcher, M. Bou Cabo, J. Boumaaza, M. Bouta, M. Bouwhuis, C. Bozza, H. Brânzaş, R. Bruijn, J. Brunner, R. Bruno, E. Buis, R. Buompane, J. Busto, B. Caiffi, D. Calvo, S. Campion, A. Capone, F. Carenini, V. Carretero, P. Castaldi, S. Celli, L. Cerisy, M. Chabab, N. Chau, A. Chen, R. Cherkaoui El Moursli, S. Cherubini, V. Chiarella, T. Chiarusi, M. Circella, R. Cocimano, J. A. B. Coelho, A. Coleiro, R. Coniglione, P. Coyle, A. Creusot, A. Cruz, G. Cuttone, R. Dallier, Y. Darras, A. De Benedittis, B. De Martino, R. Del Burgo, I. Di Palma, A. F. Dìaz, D. Diego-Tortosa, C. Distefano, A. Domi, C. Donzaud, D. Dornic, M. Dörr, E. Drakopoulou, D. Drouhin, T. Eberl, A. Eddyamoui, T. van Eeden, M. Eff, D. van Eijk, I. El Bojaddaini, S. El Hedri, A. Enzenhöfer, V. Espinosa, G. Ferrara, M. D. Filipović, F. Filippini, L. A. Fusco, J. Gabriel, T. Gal, J. García Méndez, A. Garcia Soto, F. Garufi, C. Gatius Oliver, N. Geißelbrecht, L. Gialanella, E. Giorgio, A. Girardi, I. Goos, S. R. Gozzini, R. Gracia, K. Graf, D. Guderian, C. Guidi, B. Guillon, M. Gutiérrez, L. Haegel, H. van Haren, A. Heijboer, A. Hekalo, L. Hennig, J. J. Hernández-Rey, F. Huang, W. Idrissi Ibnsalih, G. Illuminati, C. W. James, D. Janezashvili, M. de Jong, P. de Jong, B. J. Jung, P. Kalaczyński, O. Kalekin, U. F. Katz, N. R. Khan Chowdhury, G. Kistauri, F. van der Knaap, P. Kooijman, A. Kouchner, V. Kulikovskiy, M. Labalme, R. Lahmann, A. Lakhal, M. Lamoureux, G. Larosa, C. Lastoria, A. Lazo, R. Le Breton, S. Le Stum, G. Lehaut, E. Leonora, N. Lessing, G. Levi, S. Liang, M. Lindsey Clark, F. Longhitano, L. Maderer, J. Majumdar, J. Mańczak, A. Margiotta, A. Marinelli, C. Markou, L. Martin, J. A. Martínez-Mora, A. Martini, F. Marzaioli, M. Mastrodicasa, S. Mastroianni, K. W. Melis, S. Miccichè, G. Miele, P. Migliozzi, E. Migneco, P. Mijakowski, C. M. Mollo, L. Morales-Gallegos, C. Morley-Wong, A. Moussa, R. Muller, M. R. Musone, M. Musumeci, L. Nauta, S. Navas, C. A. Nicolau, B. Nkosi, B. Ó. Fearraigh, A. Orlando, E. Oukacha, J. Palacios González, G. Papalashvili, R. Papaleo, E. J. Pastor Gomez, A. M. Păun, G. E. Păvălaş, C. Pellegrino, S. Peña Martínez, M. Perrin-Terrin, J. Perronnel, V. Pestel, P. Piattelli, O. Pisanti, C. Poirè, V. Popa, T. Pradier, S. Pulvirenti, G. Quéméner, U. Rahaman, N. Randazzo, S. Razzaque, I. C. Rea, D. Real, S. Reck, G. Riccobene, J. Robinson, A. Romanov, F. Salesa Greus, D. F. E. Samtleben, A. Sánchez Losa, M. Sanguineti, C. Santonastaso, D. Santonocito, P. Sapienza, A. Sathe, J. Schnabel, M. F. Schneider, J. Schumann, H. M. Schutte, J. Seneca, I. Sgura, R. Shanidze, A. Sharma, A. Simonelli, A. Sinopoulou, M. V. Smirnov, B. Spisso, M. Spurio, D. Stavropoulos, S. M. Stellacci, M. Taiuti, K. Tavzarashvili, Y. Tayalati, H. Tedjditi, H. Thiersen, S. Tsagkli, V. Tsourapis, E. Tzamariudaki, V. Van Elewyck, G. Vannoye, G. Vasileiadis, F. Versari, S. Viola, D. Vivolo, H. Warnhofer, J. Wilms, E. de Wolf, H. Yepes-Ramirez, T. Yousfi, S. Zavatarelli, A. Zegarelli, D. Zito, J. D. Zornoza, J. Zúñiga, N. Zywucka
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: SpringerOpen 2023
• Subjects: Astrophysics; QB460-466; Nuclear and particle physics. Atomic energy. Radioactivity; QC770-798; Orca
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-023-11401-5; https://doaj.org/article/85b45324a9bf4d87b645e3c1900ed43e

Abstract This article reports the first observation of the Moon and the Sun shadows in the sky distribution of cosmic-ray induced muons measured by the KM3NeT/ORCA detector. The analysed data-taking period spans from February 2020 to November 2021, when the detector had 6 Detection Units deployed at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, each composed of 18 Digital Optical Modules. The shadows induced by the Moon and the Sun were detected at their nominal position with a statistical significance of 4.2 $$\sigma $$ σ and 6.2 $$\sigma $$ σ , and an angular resolution of $$\sigma _{res}=0.49^\circ $$ σ res = 0 . 49 ∘ and $$\sigma _{res}=0.66^\circ $$ σ res = 0 . 66 ∘ , respectively, consistent with the prediction of $$0.53^\circ $$ 0 . 53 ∘ from simulations. This early result confirms the effectiveness of the detector calibration, in time, position and orientation and the accuracy of the event direction reconstruction. This also demonstrates the performance and the competitiveness of the detector in terms of pointing accuracy and angular resolution.