The detection of ultra high energetic cosmic neutrinos provides a unique means to search for extragalactic sources that accelerate particles to extreme energies. It allows to study the neutrino component of the GZK cut-off in the cosmic ray energy spectrum and the search for neutrinos beyond this limit. Due to low expected flux and small interaction cross-section of neutrinos with matter large experimental set-ups are needed to conduct this type of research. Acoustic detection of cosmic rays may provide a means for the detection of ultra-high energetic neutrinos. Using relative low absorption of sound in water, large experimental set-ups in the deep sea are possible that are able to detect these most rare events, but it requires highly sensitive hydrophones as the thermo-acoustic pulse originating from a particle shower in water has a typical amplitude as low as a mPa. It has been shown in characterisation measurements that the fibre optic hydrophone technology as designed and realised at TNO provides the required sensitivity. Noise measurements and pulse reconstruction have been conducted that show that the hydrophone is suited as a particle detector.

Abstract. Cosmic neutrinos with ultra high energies can be detected acoustically using hydrophones. The detection of these neutrinos may provide crucial information about then GZK mechanism. The flux of these neutrinos, however, is expected to be low, so that a detection volume is required more than a order of magnitude larger than what has presently been realized. With a large detection volume and a large number of hydrophones, there is a need for technology that is cheap and easy to deploy. Fiber optics provide a natural way for distributed sensing. In addition, a sensor has been designed and manufactured that can be produced cost-effectively on an industrial scale. Sensitivity measurements show that the sensor is able to reach the required sea-state zero level. For a proper interpretation of the expected bipolar signals, filtering techniques should be applied to remove the effects of the unwanted resonance peaks.

Abstract. The scientific prospects of detecting neutrinos with an energy close or even higher than the GKZ cut-off energy has been discussed extensively in literature. It is clear that due to their expected low flux, the detection of these ultra-high energy neutrinos (E ν > 10 18 eV) requires a telescope larger than 100 km 3 . Acoustic detection may provide a way to observe these ultra-high energy cosmic neutrinos, as sound that they induce in the deep sea when neutrinos lose their energy travels undisturbed for many kilometers. To realize a large scale acoustic neutrino telescope, dedicated technology must be developed that allows for a deep sea sensor network. Fiber optic hydrophone technology provides a promising means to establish a large scale sensor network [1] with the proper sensitivity to detect the small signals from the neutrino interactions.

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Fiber based hydrophones for ultra-high energy neutrino detection E. J. Buis