Extending KM3NeT’s Point-Source Searches to Lower Energies with KM3NeT/ORCA

Bouasla, A. B.; Attallah, R.; Adriani, O.; Albert, A.; Alhebsi, A. R.; Alshalloudi, S.; Alshamsi, M.; Alves Garre, S.; Ameli, F.; Andre, M.; Aphecetche, L.; Ardid, M.; Ardid, S.; Aublin, J.; Badaracco, F.; Bailly-Salins, L.; Baret, B.; Bariego-Quintana, A.; Barnard, M.; Becherini, Y.; Bendahman, M.; Benfenati Gualandi, F.; Benhassi, M.; Benoit, D. M.; Benusova, Z.; Berbee, E.; Berti, E.; Bertin, V.; Betti, P.; Biagi, S.; Boettcher, M.; Bonanno, D.; Bondi, M.; Bottai, S.; Bouasla, A. B.; Boumaaza, J.; Bouta, M.; Bouwhuis, M.; Bozza, C.; Bozza, R. M.; Branzas, H.; Bretaudeau, F.; Breuhaus, M.; Bruijn, R.; Brunner, J.; Bruno, R.; Buis, E.; Buompane, R.; Burriel, I.; Busto, J.; Caiffi, B.; Calvo, D.; Capone, A.; Carenini, F.; Carretero, V.; Cartraud, T.; Castaldi, P.; Cecchini, V.; Celli, S.; Cerisy, L.; Chabab, M.; Chen, A.; Cherubini, S.; Chiarusi, T.; Chung, W.; Circella, M.; Clark, R.; Cocimano, R.; Coelho, J. A. B.; Coleiro, A.; Condorelli, A.; Coniglione, R.; Coyle, P.; Creusot, A.; Cuttone, G.; Dallier, R.; De Benedittis, A.; De Wasseige, G.; Decoene, V.; Deguire, P.; Del Rosso, I.; Di Mauro, L. S.; Di Palma, I.; Diaz, A. F.; Diego-Tortosa, D.; Distefano, C.; Domi, A.; Donzaud, C.; Dornic, D.; Drakopoulou, E.; Drouhin, D.; Ducoin, J. -G.; Duverne, P.; Dvornicky, R.; Eberl, T.; Eckerova, E.; Eddymaoui, A.; Van Eeden, T.; Eff, M.; Van Eijk, D.; El Bojaddaini, I.; El Hedri, S.; El Mentawi, S.; Ellajosyula, V.; Enzenhofer, A.; Farino, M.; Ferrara, G.; Filipovic, M. D.; Filippini, F.; Franciotti, D.; Fusco, L. A.; Gal, T.; Garcia Mendez, J.; Garcia Soto, A.; Gatius Oliver, C.; Geisselbrecht, N.; Genton, E.; Ghaddari, H.; Gialanella, L.; Gibson, B. K.; Giorgio, E.; Goos, I.; Goswami, P.; Gozzini, S. R.; Gracia, R.; Guillon, B.; Haack, C.; Hanna, C.; Van Haren, H.; Hazelton, E.; Heijboer, A.; Hennig, L.; Hernandez-Rey, J. J.; Idrissi, A.; Idrissi Ibnsalih, W.; Illuminati, G.; Jaimes, R.; Janik, O.; Joly, D.; De Jong, M.; De Jong, P.; Jung, B. J.; Kalaczynski, P.; Katz, U. F.; Keegans, J.; Kikvadze, V.; Kistauri, G.; Kopper, C.; Kouchner, A.; Kovalev, Y. Y.; Krupa, L.; Kueviakoe, V.; Kulikovskiy, V.; Kvatadze, R.; Labalme, M.; Lahmann, R.; Lamoureux, M.; Langella, A.; Larosa, G.; Lastoria, C.; Lazar, J.; Lazo, A.; Lehaut, G.; Lemaitre, V.; Leonora, E.; Lessing, N.; Levi, G.; Lindsey Clark, M.; Longhitano, F.; Madarapu, S.; Magnani, F.; Malerba, L.; Mamedov, F.; Manfreda, A.; Manousakis, A.; Marconi, M.; Margiotta, A.; Marinelli, A.; Markou, C.; Martin, L.; Mastrodicasa, M.; Mastroianni, S.; Mauro, J.; Mehta, K. C. K.; Miele, G.; Migliozzi, P.; Migneco, E.; Mitsou, M. L.; Mollo, C. M.; Morales-Gallegos, L.; Mori, N.; Moussa, A.; Mozun Mateo, I.; Muller, R.; Musone, M. R.; Musumeci, M.; Navas, S.; Nayerhoda, A.; Nicolau, C. A.; Nkosi, B.; Fearraigh, B. O.; Oliviero, V.; Orlando, A.; Oukacha, E.; Pacini, L.; Paesani, D.; Palacios Gonzalez, J.; Papalashvili, G.; Papini, P.; Parisi, V.; Parmar, A.; Pastore, C.; Paun, A. M.; Pavalas, G. E.; Pena Martinez, S.; Perrin-Terrin, M.; Pestel, V.; Petropavlova, M.; Piattelli, P.; Plavin, A.; Poire, C.; Popa, V.; Pradier, T.; Prado, J.; Pulvirenti, S.; Quiroz-Rangel, C. A.; Randazzo, N.; Ratnani, A.; Razzaque, S.; Rea, I. C.; Real, D.; Riccobene, G.; Robinson, J.; Romanov, A.; Ros, E.; Saina, A.; Salesa Greus, F.; Samtleben, D. F. E.; Sanchez Losa, A.; Sanfilippo, S.; Sanguineti, M.; Santonocito, D.; Sapienza, P.; Scaringella, M.; Scarnera, M.; Schnabel, J.; Schumann, J.; Seneca, J.; Sevle Myhr, P. A.; Sgura, I.; Shanidze, R.; Shao, C.; Sharma, A.; Shitov, Y.; Simkovic, F.; Simonelli, A.; Sinopoulou, A.; Spisso, B.; Spurio, M.; Starodubtsev, O.; Stavropoulos, D.; Stekl, I.; Stocco, D.; Taiuti, M.; Tayalati, Y.; Thiersen, H.; Tosta E Melo, I.; Trocme, B.; Tsourapis, V.; Tully, C.; Tzamariudaki, E.; Ukleja, A.; Vacheret, A.; Valsecchi, V.; Van Elewyck, V.; Vannoye, G.; Vannuccini, E.; Vasileiadis, G.; Vazquez De Sola, F.; Veutro, A.; Viola, S.; Vivolo, D.; Van Vliet, A.; De Wolf, E.; Lhenry-Yvon, I.; Zavatarelli, S.; Zito, D.; Zornoza, J. D.; Zuniga, J.

doi:10.22323/1.501.1026

Neutrino telescopes play a key role in multi-messenger astrophysics, providing unique insights into the still-unclear processes in our Universe and its active sources. With the goal of shedding light on these mysteries, the KM3NeT collaboration is deploying a deep-sea Cherenkov neutrino telescope in the Mediterranean Sea. It comprises two detectors: identical in their design but differing by size and density. KM3NeT/ARCA, off the coast of Sicily, is optimised for high energies in the TeV-PeV range to observe astrophysical neutrinos. KM3NeT/ORCA, off the coast of Toulon (France), is designed to detect GeV–TeV atmospheric neutrinos to study oscillations and mass ordering, thereby also detecting low-energy astrophysical neutrinos and extending KM3NeT’s reach to sources at lower energies than those accessible to KM3NeT/ARCA. This contribution presents the expected performances for the detection of point-like sources using the data collected by KM3NeT/ORCA from February 2020 to September 2023. For the first time, KM3NeT/ORCA data are used to perform a binned likelihood analysis, improving KM3NeT’s sensitivity to softer spectra and enhancing the prospects for detecting neutrino sources across a wider energy range. The discovery potential and sensitivity of KM3NeT/ORCA to point sources for different spectral assumptions and over the full sky are reported. As a first application of this analysis, the direction of KM3-230213A, the ultra-high energy event recently observed by KM3NeT, is inspected, and unblinding results from the surrounding region are presented.