2- universityof hawaii（2 -夏威夷大学）（27页）.docVIP

Operation and performance of the NESTOR test detector NESTOR Collaboration Abstract NESTOR is a deep-sea neutrino telescope that is under construction in the Ionian Sea off the coast of Greece at a depth of 4000 metres. This paper briefly describes the detector structure before reporting in detail on a full engineering run of a test detector carried out in 2003, during which data were transmitted to shore in real time via an electro-optical cable laid on the sea floor. The performance of the detector is described and analysis of the data shows good agreement with previous measurements and with phenomenological models. 1. Introduction When high energy neutrinos interact with matter they produce relativistic muons which follow closely the direction of the incident neutrinos. When such interactions occur in the sea water or bedrock close to the detector, these muons can be observed by the Cerenkov light that they emit using arrays of sensitive optical detectors: from the arrival times and intensity of the light pulses detected, the direction and a crude estimate of the energy of the muons, a hence those of the incident neutrinos, can be reconstructed. The potential of such detectors for astronomy and cosmology has long been recognised. After initial work by DUMAND [1] near Hawaii, detectors are currently operating at Lake Baikal (Siberia) [2] and in ice at the South Pole (AMANDA) [3]. A large array (ICECUBE [4]) is starting construction at the South Pole and the need for a complementary detector (~ 1 km3) in the northern hemisphere is recognised. In the past decade a a number of projects have been pursuit in the Mediterranean [5,6,7]. 2. Main features of the NESTOR Detector, its site and infrastructure A number of reports and papers have described in detail the elements of the NESTOR detector and the techniques used for its deployment and recovery [8-13]. The main features are only briefly reviewed in this section. The prerequisites f