3:30 pm
MCP 201 933 East 56th Street
Chicago IL 60637
Neutrinos provide a unique window into the most extreme and energetic environments of the Universe, as they propagate virtually unperturbed across cosmological distances. Following more than a decade of successful operation, the ANTARES detector — the first undersea neutrino telescope — has been decommissioned after paving the way for the new-generation observatory KM3NeT, now under construction at two deep-sea sites in the Mediterranean. At the Toulon site (France), KM3NeT/ORCA is optimized for precision measurements of atmospheric neutrinos and the study of fundamental oscillation parameters, while off Sicily, KM3NeT/ARCA targets high-energy astrophysical neutrinos from cosmic accelerators.
This seminar will recall the scientific legacy of ANTARES, whose final results include stringent constraints on astrophysical neutrino fluxes, searches for point-like and extended sources, and contributions to multi-messenger campaigns. Recent KM3NeT/ARCA observations have already delivered a remarkable highlight: the detection of the ultra-high-energy neutrino candidate KM3-230213A, with a reconstructed muon energy of about 120 PeV, making it one of the most energetic neutrino-induced events ever recorded. Its extreme energy and geometry suggest a possible origin in a powerful cosmic accelerator, or even a first hint of a cosmogenic neutrino. Looking forward, KM3NeT promises unprecedented sensitivity to both oscillation physics and astrophysical neutrino sources, with the potential to address some of the most pressing questions at the interface of particle physics and high-energy astrophysics.