No Arabic abstract
A search for cosmic neutrino sources using the data collected with the ANTARES neutrino telescope between early 2007 and the end of 2015 is performed. For the first time, all neutrino interactions --charged and neutral current interactions of all flavours-- are considered in a search for point-like sources with the ANTARES detector. In previous analyses, only muon neutrino charged current interactions were used. This is achieved by using a novel reconstruction algorithm for shower-like events in addition to the standard muon track reconstruction. The shower channel contributes about 23% of all signal events for an $E^{-2}$ energy spectrum. No significant excess over background is found. The most signal-like cluster of events is located at $(alpha,delta) = (343.8^circ, 23.5^circ)$ with a significance of $1.9sigma$. The neutrino flux sensitivity of the search is about $E^2 dvarPhi/dE = 6cdot10^{-9} GeV cm^{-2} s^{-1}$ for declinations from $-90^circ$ up to $-42^circ$, and below $10^{-8} GeV cm^{-2} s^{-1}$ for declinations up to $5^{circ}$. The directions of 106 source candidates and of 13 muon track events from the IceCube HESE sample are investigated for a possible neutrino signal and upper limits on the signal flux are determined.
The ANTARES neutrino telescope is installed at a depth of 2.5 km of the Mediterranean Sea and consists of a three-dimensional array of 885 photomultipliers arranged on twelve detector lines. The prime objective is to detect high-energy neutrinos from extraterrestrial origin. Relativistic muons emerging from charged-current muon neutrino interactions in the detector surroundings produce a cone of Cerenkov light which allows the reconstruction of the original neutrino direction. The collaboration has implemented different methods to search for neutrino point sources in the data collected since 2007. Results obtained with these methods as well as the sensitivity of the telescope are presented.
The flux of very high-energy neutrinos produced in our Galaxy by the interaction of accelerated cosmic rays with the interstellar medium is not yet determined. The characterization of this flux will shed light on Galactic accelerator features, gas distribution morphology and Galactic cosmic ray transport. The central Galactic plane can be the site of an enhanced neutrino production, thus leading to anisotropies in the extraterrestrial neutrino signal as measured by the IceCube Collaboration. The ANTARES neutrino telescope, located in the Mediterranean Sea, offers a favourable view on this part of the sky, thereby allowing for a contribution to the determination of this flux. The expected diffuse Galactic neutrino emission can be obtained linking a model of generation and propagation of cosmic rays with the morphology of the gas distribution in the Milky Way. In this paper, the so-called Gamma model introduced recently to explain the high-energy gamma ray diffuse Galactic emission, is assumed as reference. The neutrino flux predicted by the Gamma model depends of the assumed primary cosmic ray spectrum cut-off. Considering a radially-dependent diffusion coefficient, this proposed scenario is able to account for the local cosmic ray measurements, as well as for the Galactic gamma ray observations. Nine years of ANTARES data are used in this work to search for a possible Galactic contribution according to this scenario. All flavour neutrino interactions are considered. No excess of events is observed and an upper limit is set on the neutrino flux of $1.1$ ($1.2$) times the prediction of the Gamma model assuming the primary cosmic ray spectrum cut-off at 5 (50) PeV. This limit excludes the diffuse Galactic neutrino emission as the major cause of the spectral anomaly between the two hemispheres measured by IceCube.
One of the main objectives of the ANTARES telescope is the search for point-like neutrino sources. Both the pointing accuracy and the angular resolution of the detector are important in this context and a reliable way to evaluate this performance is needed. In order to measure the pointing accuracy of the detector, one possibility is to study the shadow of the Moon, i.e. the deficit of the atmospheric muon flux from the direction of the Moon induced by the absorption of cosmic rays. Analysing the data taken between 2007 and 2016, the Moon shadow is observed with $3.5sigma$ statistical significance. The detector angular resolution for downward-going muons is 0.73$^{circ}pm0.14^{circ}.$ The resulting pointing performance is consistent with the expectations. An independent check of the telescope pointing accuracy is realised with the data collected by a shower array detector onboard of a ship temporarily moving around the ANTARES location.
Results are presented of a search for cosmic sources of high energy neutrinos with the ANTARES neutrino telescope. The data were collected during 2007 and 2008 using detector configurations containing between 5 and 12 detection lines. The integrated live time of the analyzed data is 304 days. Muon tracks are reconstructed using a likelihood-based algorithm. Studies of the detector timing indicate a median angular resolution of 0.5 +/- 0.1 degrees. The neutrino flux sensitivity is 7.5 x 10-8 ~ (E/GeV)^-2 GeV^-1 s^-1 cm^-2 for the part of the sky that is always visible (declination < -48 degrees), which is better than limits obtained by previous experiments. No cosmic neutrino sources have been observed.
ANTARES is the largest undersea neutrino telescope and it has been taking data in its final configuration for more than ten years. On their journey to the Earth, cosmic rays can be absorbed by celestial objects, like the Sun, leading to a deficit in the atmospheric muon flux measured by the ANTARES detector, the so-called Sun shadow effect. This phenomenon can be used to evaluate fundamental telescope characteristics: the detector angular resolution and pointing accuracy. This work describes the study of the Sun shadow effect using the ANTARES data collected between 2008 and 2017. The statistical significance of the Sun shadow observation is $3.7sigma$ and the estimated angular resolution value of the ANTARES telescope for downward-going muons is $0.59^{circ} pm 0.10^{circ}$, which is consistent with the expectations obtained from the Monte Carlo simulations and also with the estimation from the Moon shadow analysis of 2007-2016 years. No evidence of systematic pointing shift is found and the resulting pointing accuracy is consistent with the expectations.