KM3NeT: Present status and potentiality for the search for exotic particles V. Popa, for the KM3NeT Collaboration Institute for Space Sciences, Magurele-Bucharest, Romania Outline Introduction on KM3NeT Status of the KM3NeT-DS Status of the KM3NeT-PP The main goal: Neutrino Astronomy Exotic particles: Monopoles, nuclearites, Q-balls Conclusions KM3NeT will be a very large volume (~ km 3 ) Neutrino Telescope, to be deployed in the Mediterranean Sea, after The consortium includes 40 Institutes or University groups from 10 European countries. The research is financed trough 2 European projects: KM3NeT-DS and KM3NeT-PP. There will be room for Earth and Ocean Sciences. Official web page:One of the Magnificent Seven of the ASPERA Roadmap Status of the KM3NeT Design Study The project is due to end in October this year. The Conceptual Design Report published in April The Technical Design Report will be soon completed, after some fundamental choices will be made Location Architecture Optical modules Power and data management KM3NeT takes advantage on the 3 pilot experiments ANTARES NEMO NESTOR All in the Mediterranean Sea Most of the involved people are members of the KM3NeT KM3NeT takes advantage on the 3 pilot experiments ANTARES NEMO NESTOR This is why other neutrino telescopes (AMANDA, IceCUBE, Baikal, DUMAND) are not included in the list. KM3NeT takes advantage on the 3 pilot experiments ANTARES NEMO NESTOR -The only undersea neutrino telescope successfully deployed and tacking data - Teaching us that the marriage between neutrino physics and deep sea is not always a happy one - Introducing and testing a different structure concept: the towers. - The star structure, and a new deployment strategy The site 3 candidate locations, corresponding to the pilot experiments The depth. (Deeper is better? But also more expensive) Water optical properties Distance to the shore station The bioluminescence The K 40 concentration Current flow Sediment flux Shore infrastructure (ports, roads, airports) Cost effectiveness (including possible contributions from the local Governments) Interference with other undersea projects (GMES Global Monitoring for Environment and Security, GOOS - Global Ocean Observing Systems, EuroGOOS, DEOS Dynamics of Earth and Ocean Systems) Architecture: overall layouts Homogeneous Cluster Ring . Architecture: the detection units ANTARES-like strings. SOM MOM SOM Breakout Architecture: the detection units NEMO-like towers. 8m Architecture: the detection units New ideas. Self-sustained OMs Many strings might be deployed in the same operation Architecture: Optical Modules Single large (8, 10) PMTs? Architecture: Optical Modules Many small (~3) PMTs? Decisions to be taken soon, based on intensive detector simulations and cost estimations Common Layout 91 Detector Units Hexagon 20 storeys per DU 30m between storey Compare configurations DU spacing: 100, 130m, 160m for each analysed configurations Status of the KM3NeT Preparatory Phase The project started last year and is due to end in 2012 The primary objective of the KM3NeT Preparatory Phase is to pave the path to political and scientific convergence on the legal, governance, financial engineering and site related aspects of the infrastructure and to prepare rapid and efficient construction once approved. As has become apparent in the ongoing KM3NeT Design Study, reconciliation of national and regional political and financial priorities with scientific and technological considerations will be a major issue The main scientific goal: Neutrino Astronomy How does it work? The main scientific goal: Neutrino Astronomy Point Sources Supernova Remnants Microquasars Gamma Ray Bursters Hidden Sources (not seen in other wavelengths) Neutrino Astronomy: Sky coverage From the South: IceCube (angular resolution ~ 1 0 ) From the North: KM3NeT (angular resolution ~ ) Muon neutrinos interactions are the golden channel for point sources searches, but a very large volume neutrino telescope will be sensitive to all neutrino flavors! Other scientific goals: Diffuse neutrino flux Dark Matter Exotic Particles Atmospheric muons and neutrinos Neutrino Cross Sections 1. Magnetic Monopoles Intermediate mass monopoles GUT monopoles Two categories Magnetic charge g = n g D, n = 1,2,3,? and g D = 137/2 e Gauge theories of unified interactions predict MMs Mass m M m X /G > GeV ~ 0.02 g GeV GUT Monopoles SU(5) GeV s SU(3) C x [SU(2) L x U(1) y ] 10 2 GeV s SU(3) C x U(1) EM Grand Unification: virtual X,Y Electroweak unification: W, Z Confinement region: virtual s, gluons, condensate of fermions -antifermion, 4 fermion virtual states B=g/r 2 Magnetic field of a point Dirac monopole Radius (cm) r few fm B ~ g/r 2 Size: extended object Slowly moving! Proton decay catalysis Proton decay (Callan Rubakov) A proton decay is expected every Assuming Mon = 10 -3, in water, 10 cm 10m 30 s - 3 ms GUT MMs detectable trough the Cherenkov light emitted by the proton decay charged secondaries, between 10 5 photons with = 300 600 nm for each event. A trigger should require multiple coincidences in a relatively large time window, and the efficiency of such a search depends strongly on the assumed value of 0 and Mon Intermediate mass MMs ( GeV) 1994 De Rujula CERN-TH 7273/94 E. Huguet & P. Peter hep-ph/ T.W. Kephart, Q. Shafi Phys. Lett. B520(2001)313 Wick et al. Astropart. Phys. 18, 663 (2003) Produced in the Early Universe after GUT phase transitions ex. (Shafi) M ~ GeV, g = 2 g D, no p-decay catalysis IMMs can be accelerated in the galactic B field to relativistic velocities T = g D B L ~ 6 x GeV (B/3x10 -6 G) (L/300pc) Galaxy T 6 x GeV Neutron stars T GeV AGN T GeV Could they produce the highest energy cosmic ray showers E > eV ? SO(10) GeV s SU(4) x SU(2) x SU(2 ) 10 9 GeV s SU(3) x SU(2) x U(1) Relativistic! Intermediate mass MMs in VLV Ts Cherenkov light production - By the monopole and by electrons for - By electrons for KM3NeT, as other VLV Ts, will be optimized for the Cherenkov light produced by upward going particles; relativistic IMMMs detection is expected mostly from above Direct Cherenkov emission ( > 0.74) Cherenkov emission enhanced by a factor about 8500 compared with the yield! Cherenkov light from rays (knock-on electrons), Mon >0.51 Total number Cherenkov photons 300 < < 600 nm Monopole Direct -ray Muon Aggregates of u, d, s quarks + electrons, n e = 2/3 n u 1/3 n d 1/3 n s Ground state of QCD; stable for 300 < A < Nuclearites E. Witten, Phys. Rev. D30 (1984) 272A. De Rujula, S. L. Glashow, Nature 312 (1984) 734 Produced in Early Universe or in strange star collisions (J. Madsen, PRD71 (2005) ) Candidates for cold Dark Matter! Searched for in CR reaching the Earth R (fm) M (GeV) A qualitative picture [black points are electrons] N 3.5 x g cm -3 nuclei g cm -3 Intermediate mass nuclearites M (GeV) s e d u u u u u d d d s d s s s e e e - Essentially neutral (most if not all e - inside) - Simple properties: galactic velocities, elastic collisions, energy losses - Could reach KM3NeT from above - Better flux limit from MACRO: M. Ambrosio et al., Eur.Phys. J. C13 (2000) 453; L. Patrizii, TAUP Two low masses to reach KM3NeT Could traverse the Earth, but very low expected fluxes Nuclearites - basics Typical galactic velocities Dominant interaction: elastic collisions with atoms in the medium Dominant energy losses: Phenomenological flux limit from the local density of DM: A. De Rjula and S.L. Glashow, Nature 312 (1984) 734 A little more on dE/dx For M 8.4 GeV it depends only on v 2 The passage of a nuclearite in matter produces heat along its path In transparent media some of the energy dissipated could appear as visible light (black body radiation) The optical efficiency = the fraction of dE/dx appearing as light in water estimated to be = 3 (lower bound) (A. De Ruhula, S.L. Glashow, Nature 312 (1984) 734) Arrival conditions to the depth of KM3NeT The velocity of a nuclearite entering in a medium with v 0, after a path L becomes in the atmosphere: a = 1.2 g cm -3 ; b = 8.6 10 5 cm; H 50 km (T. Shibata, Prog. Theor. Phys. 57 (1977) 882.) in water: w 1 g cm -3 At ~ 4000 m depth, nuclearites with masses larger than ~10 15 GeV should be still fast enough to produce detectable black body light. Light production / cm of path starts to increase This calculation is done for the ANTARES geometry! Nuclearites could be seen by KM3NeT (as well as all other VLVnTs) as correlated light hits distributed in a time window of ~ 10 ms. Other possible exotic particles: Q-balls nuggets of squarks and sleptons (supersimetric nuclearites) - neutral Q-balls would absorb normal hadrons emitting pions: their signature would be as for nuclearites, combined with the GUT monopole signals - charged Q-balls would interact trough elastic collisions: would give nuclearite-like signals. KM3NeT sensitivity to exotic particles (one year of data tacking) should be at the level of cm -2 s -1 sr -1, depending on: The actual geometry of the telescope The efficiency of the dedicated triggers The efficiency of the off-line analysis (background removal, reconstruction strategy, etc.) Intensive simulations to be made after the completion of the Technical Design Report Conclusions