NOY: a Neutrino Observatory network project based on stand-alone air shower detector arrays

We have developed a self powered stand alone particle detector array dedicated to the observation of horizontal tau air showers induced by high energy neutrinos interacting in mountain rock. Air shower particle detection reach a 100% duty cycle and is practically free of background when compared to Cerenkov light or radio techniques. It is thus better suited for rare neutrino event search. An appropriate mountain to valley topological configuration has been identified and the first array has been deployed on an inclined slope at an altitude of 1500 m facing to Southern Alps near the city of Grenoble (France). A full simulation has been performed. A detailed cartography and elevation map was used to draw a neutrino energy dependent mountain tomography chart. The array acceptance was evaluated between 100 TeV and 100 EeV from a decaying tau air shower simulation. The effective surface is determined from the shower lateral extension at array location, and is found to be much larger than the geometrical array area. The single array yearly exposure will be 10¹⁴ cm².sr.y at 100 PeV. The embedded data acquisition system consists of an eight channel, 12 bits, 250 MHz digitizer associated to a FPGA containing a trigger definition design, a time tagging referenced by a GPS board and a Linux core processor. PMT high voltage supplies are remote controlled via serial or USB port. Data and slow control data are stored on a flash memory. Remote control and data transfer are operated under a commercial wireless communication system. This low consumption data acquisition system is self powered via solar energy. Several independent arrays can be deployed on the same site. Other sites around the world with a similar topography can contribute to a neutrino observatory network. Some other sites are already under study. At last, special care is dedicated to the educational and outreach aspects of such a cosmic ray detector

NOY: a neutrino observatory network project based on stand alone air shower detector arrays
F. Montanet, D. Lebrun, J. Chauvin, E. Lagorio, and P. Stassi
Astrophys. Space Sci. Trans., 7, 369-372, 2011
Abstract   Full Article (PDF, 433 KB)

NOY: a Neutrino Observatory network project based on stand-alone air shower detector arrays
D. Lebrun, F. Montanet, J. Chauvin, D-H. Koang, E. Lagorio and P. Stassi
PROCEEDINGS OF THE 31st ICRC, ŁÓDZ 2009
Full Article (PDF, 289 KB)