Deep-sea deployment of the KM3NeT neutrino telescope detection units by self-unrolling
Abstract
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.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2007.16090,
title = {Deep-sea deployment of the KM3NeT neutrino telescope detection units by self-unrolling},
author = {The KM3NeT Collaboration and S. Aiello and A. Albert and S. Alves Garre and Z. Aly and F. Ameli and E. G. Anassontzis and M. Andre and G. Androulakis and M. Anghinolfi and M. Anguita and G. Anton and M. Ardid and J. Aublin and C. Bagatelas and R. Bakker and G. Barbarino and B. Baret and S. Basegmez du Pree and M. Bendahman and E. Berbeen and A. M. van den Berg and V. Bertin and S. Biagi and M. Billault and M. Bissinger and M. Boettcher and J. Boumaaza and M. Bouta and M. Bouwhuis and C. Bozza and H. Brânzaş and R. Bruijn and J. Brunner and E. Buis and R. Buompane and J. Busto and G. Cacopardo and B. Caiffi and L. Caillat and D. Calvo and A. Capone and V. Carretero and P. Castaldi and S. Celli and M. Chabab and N. Chau and A. Chen and S. Cherubini and V. Chiarella and T. Chiarusi and M. Circella and R. Cocimano and J. A. B. Coelho and A. Coleiro and M. Colomer Molla and S. Colonges and R. Coniglione and I. Corredoira and A. Cosquer and P. Coyle and A. Creusot and G. Cuttone and C. D'Amato and A. D'Onofrio and R. Dallier and M. De Palma and I. Di Palma and A. F. Díaz and D. Diego-Tortosa and C. Distefano and A. Domi and R. Donà and C. Donzau and D. Dornic and M. Dörr and D. Drouhin and T. Eberl and A. Eddyamoui and T. van Eeden and D. van Eijk and I. El Bojaddaini and D. Elsaesser and A. Enzenhöfer and V. Espinosa and P. Fermani and G. Ferrara and M. D. Filipović and F. Filippini and L. A. Fusco and O. Gabella and T. Gal and A. Garcia Soto and F. Garufi and Y. Gatelet and N. Geißelbrecht and L. Gialanella and E. Giorgio and L. Gostiaux and S. R. Gozzini and R. Gracia and K. Graf and D. Grasso and G. Grella and A. Grmek and D. Guderian and C. Guidii and S. Hallmann and H. Hamdaoui and H. van Haren and J. van Heerwaarden and A. Heijboer and A. Hekaloa and S. Henry and J. J. Hernández-Rey and T. Hillebrand and J. Hofestädt and F. Huang and W. Idrissi Ibnsalih and A. Ilioni and G. Illuminati and C. W. James and M. de Jong and P. de Jong and B. J. Jung and M. Kadler and P. Kalaczyński and O. Kalekin and U. F. Katz and N. R. Khan Chowdhury and G. Kistauri and F. van der Knaap and E. N. Koffeman and P. Kooijman and A. Kouchner and M. Kreter and V. Kulikovskiy and M. Laan and R. Lahmann and P. Lamare and G. Larosa and J. Laurence and R. Le Breton and O. Leonardi and F. Leone and E. Leonora and G. Levi and M. Lincetto and M. Lindsey Clark and T. Lipreau and F. Longhitano and D. LopezCotoa and L. Maderer and J. Mańczak and K. Mannheim and A. Margiotta and A. Marinelli and C. Markou and L. Martin and J. A. Martínez-Mora and A. Martini and F. Marzaioli and S. Mastroianni and S. Mazzou and K. W. Melis and G. Miele and P. Migliozzi and E. Migneco and P. Mijakowski and L. S. Miranda and C. M. Mollo and M. Mongelli and M. Morganti and M. Moser and A. Moussa and R. Muller and D. Muñoz Pérez and M. Musumeci and L. Nauta and S. Navas and C. A. Nicolau and B. Ó Fearraigh and M. O'Sullivan and M. Organokov and A. Orlando and J. Palacios González and G. Papalashvili and R. Papaleo and C. Pastore and A. M. Păun and G. E. Păvălaş and C. Pellegrino and M. Perrin-Terrin and P. Piattelli and C. Pieterse and K. Pikounis and O. Pisanti and C. Poirè and V. Popa and T. Pradier and G. Pühlhofer and S. Pulvirenti and O. Rabyang and F. Raffaelli and N. Randazzo and S. Razzaque and D. Real and S. Reck and G. Riccobene and M. Richer and S. Rivoire and A. Rovelli and F. Salesa Greus and D. F. E. Samtleben and A. Sánchez Losa and M. Sanguineti and A. Santangelo and D. Santonocito and P. Sapienza and J. Schnabel and J. Schumann and J. Seneca and I. Sgura and R. Shanidze and A. Sharma and F. Simeone and A. Sinopoulou and B. Spisso and M. Spurio and D. Stavropoulos and J. Steijger and S. M. Stellacci and M. Taiutii and Y. Tayalati and E. Tenllado and D. Tézier and T. Thakore and S. Tingay and E. Tzamariudaki and D. Tzanetatos and V. Van Elewyck and G. Vasileiadis and F. Versari and S. Viola and D. Vivolo and G. de Wasseige and J. Wilms and R. Wojaczyński and E. de Wolf and S. Zavatarelli and A. Zegarelli and D. Zito and J. D. Zornoza and J. Zúñiga and N. Zywucka},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2007.16090},
year = {2020}
}