Deep-sea deployment of the KM3NeT neutrino telescope detection units by self-unrolling
Metadata
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IOP Publishing LTD
Materia
Cherenkov detectors Manufacturing Overall mechanics design (support structures and materials, vibration analysis etc) Special cables
Date
2020-11-19Referencia bibliográfica
Aiello, S., Albert, A., Garre, S. A., Aly, Z., Ameli, F., Anassontzis, E. G., ... & Longhitano, F. (2020). Deep-sea deployment of the KM3NeT neutrino telescope detection units by self-unrolling. Journal of Instrumentation, 15(11), P11027. [https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-0221/15/11/P11027]
Sponsorship
French National Research Agency (ANR) ANR-15-CE31-0020; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS); European Union (EU); Institut Universitaire de France (IUF); LabEx UnivEarthS ANR-10-LABX-0023 ANR-18-IDEX-0001; Paris Ile-de-France Region, France; Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation of Georgia (SRNSFG), Georgia FR-18-1268; German Research Foundation (DFG); Greek Ministry of Development-GSRT; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Ministero dell'Universita e della Ricerca (MUR), PRIN Italy NAT-NET 2017W4HA7S; Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Professional Training, Morocco; Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) Netherlands Government; National Science Center, Poland National Science Centre, Poland 2015/18/E/ST2/00758; National Authority for Scientific Research (ANCS), Romania; Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación, Investigación y Universidades (MCIU): Programa Estatal de Generación de Conocimiento (MCIU/FEDER) PGC2018-096663-B-C41 PGC2018-096663-B-A-C42 PGC2018-096663-B-BC43 PGC2018-096663-B-B-C44; Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence and MultiDark Consolider (MCIU), Junta de Andalucía SOMM17/6104/UGR; Generalitat Valenciana GRISOLIA/2018/119 CIDEGENT/2018/034; La Caixa Foundation LCF/BQ/IN17/11620019; EU: MSC program, Spain 713673Abstract
KM3NeT is a research infrastructure being installed in the deep Mediterranean Sea.
It will house a neutrino telescope comprising hundreds of networked moorings — detection units
or strings — equipped with optical instrumentation to detect the Cherenkov radiation generated
by charged particles from neutrino-induced collisions in its vicinity. In comparison to moorings
typically used for oceanography, several key features of the KM3NeT string are different: the
instrumentation is contained in transparent and thus unprotected glass spheres; two thin Dyneema®
ropes are used as strength members; and a thin delicate backbone tube with fibre-optics and copper
wires for data and power transmission, respectively, runs along the full length of the mooring. Also,
compared to other neutrino telescopes such as ANTARES in the Mediterranean Sea and GVD in
Lake Baikal, the KM3NeT strings are more slender to minimise the amount of material used for
support of the optical sensors. Moreover, the rate of deploying a large number of strings in a period
of a few years is unprecedented. For all these reasons, for the installation of the KM3NeT strings,
a custom-made, fast deployment method was designed. Despite the length of several hundreds of
metres, the slim design of the string allows it to be compacted into a small, re-usable spherical
launching vehicle instead of deploying the mooring weight down from a surface vessel. After
being lowered to the seafloor, the string unfurls to its full length with the buoyant launching vehicle
rolling along the two ropes. The design of the vehicle, the loading with a string, and its underwater
self-unrolling are detailed in this paper.