The main objectives of the KM3NeT Collaboration are (i) the discovery and subsequent observation of high-energy neutrino sources in the Universe and (ii) the determination of the mass hierarchy of neutrinos. These objectives are strongly motivated by two recent important discoveries, namely: (1) the highenergy astrophysical neutrino signal reported by IceCube and (2) the sizable contribution of electron neutrinos to the third neutrino mass eigenstate as reported by Daya Bay, Reno and others. To meet these objectives, the KM3NeT Collaboration plans to build a new Research Infrastructure consisting of a network of deep-sea neutrino telescopes in the Mediterranean Sea. A phased and distributed implementation is pursued which maximises the access to regional funds, the availability of human resources and the synergistic opportunities for the Earth and sea sciences community. Three suitable deep-sea sites are selected, namely off-shore Toulon (France), Capo Passero (Sicily, Italy) and Pylos (Peloponnese, Greece). The infrastructure will consist of three so-called building blocks. A building block comprises 115 strings, each string comprises 18 optical modules and each optical module comprises 31 photo-multiplier tubes. Each building block thus constitutes a threedimensional array of photo sensors that can be used to detect the Cherenkov light produced by relativistic particles emerging from neutrino interactions. Two building blocks will be sparsely configured to fully explore the IceCube signal with similar instrumented volume, different methodology, improved resolution and complementary field of view, including the galactic plane. One building block will be densely configured to precisely measure atmospheric neutrino oscillations.

The ANTARES Neutrino Telescope was completed in May 2008 and is the first operational Neutrino Telescope in the Mediterranean Sea. The main purpose of the detector is to perform neutrino astronomy and the apparatus also offers facilities for marine and Earth sciences. This paper describes the design, the construction and the installation of the telescope in the deep sea, offshore from Toulon in France. An illustration of the detector performance is given. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Hydrodynamic simulations of the merger of stellar mass black hole-neutron star binaries are compared with mergers of binary neutron stars. The simulations are Newtonian but take into account the emission and backreaction of gravitational waves. The use of a physical nuclear equation of state allows us to include the effects of neutrino emission. For low neutron star-to-black hole mass ratios, the neutron star transfers mass to the black hole during a few cycles of orbital decay and subsequent widening before finally being disrupted, whereas for ratios near unity the neutron star is destroyed during its first approach. A gas mass between ∼0.3 and ∼0.7 M , is left in an accretion torus around the black hole and radiates neutrinos at a luminosity of several times 10 53 ergs s Ϫ1 during an estimated accretion timescale of about 0.1 s. The emitted neutrinos and antineutrinos annihilate into e ‫ע‬ pairs with efficiencies of 1%-3% and rates of up to ∼ ergs s Ϫ1 , thus depositing an energy 52 2 # 10 ergs above the poles of the black hole in a region that contains less than 10 Ϫ5 M , of baryonic matter.

HADES is a versatile magnetic spectrometer aimed at studying dielectron production in pion, proton and heavy-ion induced collisions. Its main features include a ring imaging gas Cherenkov detector for electron-hadron discrimination, a tracking system consisting of a set of 6 superconducting coils producing a toroidal field and drift chambers and a multiplicity and electron trigger array for additional electron-hadron discrimination and event characterization. A two-stage trigger system enhances events containing electrons. The physics program is focused on the investigation of hadron properties in nuclei and in the hot and dense hadronic matter. The detector system is characterized by an 85 % azimuthal coverage over a polar angle interval from 18• to 85• , a single electron efficiency of 50 % and a vector meson mass resolution of 2.5 %. Identification of pions, kaons and protons is achieved combining time-of-flight and energy loss measurements over a large momentum range. This paper describes the main features and the performance of the detector system.