Towards a km3 scale neutrino detector in the Mediterranean: NEMO and KM3NeT

Abstract

Neutrinos are promising probes for high energy astrophysics. According to present estimates, km 3 scale detectors are needed to detect high energy cosmic neutrinos. Deep water/ice Cherenkov technique was proposed to detect high energy neutrinos through the tracking of the secondary muons produced in neutrino interactions. The IceCube neutrino telescope is under construction at the South Pole. For a full sky observation, a second km 3 telescope is required in the Northern hemisphere. In this paper progress and latest results from the NEMO experiment as well as the status of the KM3NeT European consortium activities toward a km 3 telescope in the Mediterranean Sea are presented.