Status and Perspectives of KM3NeT/ORCA

• Main Author: Quinn, L.
• Other Authors: 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), Km3NeT Collaboration
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2017
• Subjects: [SDU.ASTR.HE]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph]/High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena [astro-ph.HE]; [SDU.ASTR.IM]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph]/Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysic [astro-ph.IM]; Orca
• Online Access: https://hal.in2p3.fr/in2p3-01581462

International audience The KM3NeT collaboration is constructing megaton-scale neutrino detectors at a depth of 2500m in the Mediterranean Sea.These detectors, named ARCA and ORCA are each made up of a three-dimensional array of spherical optical modules, each of which contains 31 3" photomultiplier tubes, designed to detect Cherenkov light emitted by charged leptons produced by neutrino interactions in and around the instrumented volume.These are packed either sparsely (ARCA) or densely (ORCA), depending on the target energy.ORCA, which is under construction off the coast of Toulon in France, will study atmospheric neutrino oscillations in the 1-100 GeV range.This will address multiple outstanding issues in neutrino oscillation research, including ascertaining the neutrino mass ordering.Physics studies indicate that this can be determined with a significance of 3-7 sigma (depending on the true value of the hierarchy and the the value of the mixing angle θ23) after three years of operation.