Studies of the sensitivity to point-like sources of a flexible-tower
geometry for KM3NeT
R. Coniglione, C. Distefano and P. Sapienza for the KM3NeT Consortium
KM3NeT is a consortium with the aim to construct a research infrastructure including a cubickilometre neutrino telescope in the Mediterranean Sea. High-energy neutrinos are detected using the
Cherenkov light from muons and other charged particles produced in the neutrino interactions with
the matter surrounding the detector. Due to the low neutrino fluxes expected from galactic and
extragalactic sources, it is necessary to instrument large volume of water or ice with
photomultipliers.
The simulation of the detector response to the astrophysical neutrino fluxes aiming at the
optimisation of the detector options is one of the objectives of the KM3NeT Design Study. The
telescope sensitivity, quantified as the minimum detectable flux from point like sources, is one of
the main figures of merit of the telescope. Monte Carlo simulations were used to estimate the yield
of reconstructed events from point like neutrino sources and the expected background due to
atmospheric muons and neutrinos. Sensitivity studies and detector response to point-like sources
will be shown for a KM3NeT detector based on flexible towers. In particular, the behaviour of the
sensitivity as a function of the source declination, of the number of instrumented structures and of
the observation time will be presented.