The ANTARES Optical Beacon System

Abstract

ANTARES is a neutrino telescope being deployed in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of a three dimensional array of photomultiplier tubes that can detect the Cherenkov light induced by charged particles produced in the interactions of neutrinos with the surrounding medium. High angular resolution can be achieved, in particular when a muon is produced, provided that the Cherenkov photons are detected with sufficient timing precision. Considerations of the intrinsic time uncertainties stemming from the transit time spread in the photomultiplier tubes and the mechanism of transmission of light in sea water lead to the conclusion that a relative time accuracy of the order of 0.5 ns is desirable. Accordingly, different time calibration systems have been developed for the ANTARES telescope. In this article, a system based on Optical Beacons, a set of external and well-controlled pulsed light sources located throughout the detector, is described. This calibration system takes into account the optical properties of sea water, which is used as the detection volume of the ANTARES telescope. The design, tests, construction and first results of the two types of beacons, LED and laser-based, are presented.

21 pages, 18 figures, submitted to Nucl. Instr. and Meth. Phys. Res. A

References in corpus (6)

• The ANTARES Optical Module
• The data acquisition system for the ANTARES neutrino telescope
• Transmission of light in deep sea water at the site of the Antares neutrino telescope
• First results of the Instrumentation Line for the deep-sea ANTARES neutrino telescope
• Study of Large Hemispherical Photomultiplier Tubes for the ANTARES Neutrino Telescope
• Sedimentation and Fouling of Optical Surfaces at the ANTARES Site

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