ANTARES (telescope) - Experimental Goals

Experimental Goals

The ANTARES project is the counterpart to the IceCube Neutrino Detector. The detection principles of the two projects are very similar, but they point toward opposite hemispheres. ANTARES will detect neutrinos from high energy origin, particularly in the range from to electron-volts (10 GeV - 100 TeV). Over several years of operation, it may be able to produce a map of the neutrino flux from cosmic origins in the southern hemisphere. Of particular interest is the detection of astrophysical point sources of neutrinos, possibly in correlation with observations in other bands (such as gamma rays sources observed by the HESS telescope in Namibia, which has a common field of view with ANTARES).

Apart from this astro-particle physics aspect, the ANTARES telescope will also tackle some fundamental problems in particle physics, such as the search for dark matter in the form of neutralino annihilation in the sun ("normal" solar neutrinos being outside the energy range of ANTARES) or the galactic centre. Due to the very different methods employed, its expected sensitivity is nearly complementary to the direct dark matter searches performed by various experiments such as DAMA, CDMS and at the LHC. Detection of neutralino signals would also confirm supersymmetry. Other possible "exotic" phenomena that could be measured by ANTARES include nuclearites or magnetic monopoles.