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FP6 - KM3NeT project

Programme: FP 6

Project Title:  KM3NeT

Acronym: KM3NeT

Duration: 2006-2009

Total Budget : € 9.000.000

Web site: www.km3net.org

Summary: The objective of the KM3NeT project is to develop a Design Study of a future deep-sea multidisciplinary research infrastructure in the Mediterranean Sea that will provide innovative science opportunities spanning Astroparticle Physics (the main topic) and Earth and Sea Science. This is possible through the synergy created by the use of a common infrastructure  allowing for long term continuous operation of a neutrino telescope and marine instrumentation.

The principal goal of KM3NeT is the observation of cosmic point-like sources of neutrinos, in particular in a region of the sky complementary to the field of view of the IceCube detector installed at the South Pole.  For this goal, the infrastructure will host a neutrino telescope with a volume of at least one cubic kilometre at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, made by an array of thousands of optical sensors detecting the faint light in the deep sea from charged particles originating from collisions of the neutrinos and the Earth.

The facility will also house instrumentation from Earth and marine sciences for long term and on-line monitoring of the deep sea environment and the sea bottom at depth of several kilometres (a cabled observatory connected to the land).

ISMAR actively contributed to the Design Study for the infrastructure, funded by the EU FP6 framework, with a study of the oceanographic conditions in the NEMO site, located south-east of Capo Passero (Sicily), one of the candidate to host the facility, and with a study aiming at estimating the corrosion resistance and reliability over time of materials (both traditional and technologically-advanced) used for the telescope and its prototype structures.

Contact person in ISMAR: gianpietro.gasparini@sp.ismar.cnr.it   /   pierluigi.traverso@ismar.cnr.it

Partnership:
  1. University of Cyprus - Cyrpus
  2. CEA/Saclay – France
  3. CNRS/IN2P3 - France
  4. University of Haute Alsace/GRPHE - France
  5. IFREMER,, France
  6. University of Erlangen  - Germany
  7. FTZ  - Germany
  8. HCMR, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (Institute of Oceanography) -Greece
  9. HOU, Hellenic Open University – Greece
  10. NCSR, National Centre for Scientific Research 'Demokritos' – Greece
  11. NAO/Nestor, National Observatory of Athens/Nestor Institute of Astro-particle Physics – Greece
  12. University of Athens – Greece
  13. DIAS, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies - Ireland
  14. CNR/ ISMAR, Istituto di Scienze Marine, La Spezia, Italy
  15. INFN, Istituto Nazionale Fisica Nucleare - Italy
  16. INFN / University of Bari
  17. INFN / University of Bologna
  18. INFN / University of Catania
  19. INFN / University of Genova
  20. INFN / University of Napoli
  21. INFN / University of Pisa
  22. INFN / University of Roma1 (KM3NeT at University of Roma1)
  23. LNS, Catania
  24. LNF, Frascati
  25. INGV, Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia - Italy
  26. Tecnomare SpA - Italy
  27. NIKHEF (FOM), National Institute for Nuclear and High Energy Physics, Amsterdam
  28. University of Amsterdam
  29. KVI, University of Groningen
  30. University of Utrecht
  31. Royal Nehterlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ)
  32. ISS, Institute for Space Sciences, Bucharest-Magurele - Romania
  33. IFIC (CSIC), Instituto de Fisica Corpuscular – Spain
  34. Universitat de Valencia Estudi General – Spain
  35. Universitat Politecnica de Valencia – Spain
  36. University of Aberdeen (Oceanlab) - UK
  37. University of Leeds
  38. University of Liverpool (KM3NeT at Liverpool University)
  39. University of Sheffield

 

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