Unprecedented Subatomic Interaction Recorded by Underwater Observatory ARCA

Underwater observatory ARCA records unprecedented subatomic interaction. Scientists initially believe it's caused by extremely high-energy neutrinos. TapTechNews, Jun 25.

ARCA is made up of multiple plexiglass spheres, each about half a meter wide, connected to ropes attached to the seabed in the southeastern Mediterranean Sea off the southeast of Sicily, Italy. Each rope is 800 meters long and has 18 detector units in series - plexiglass spheres with a diameter of about half a meter and内置 light detectors. Currently, the array contains 28 ropes, and the ARCA team hopes to expand it to 230 ropes by 2028.

The observatory is assembled 3,500 meters below sea level and belongs to the KM3NeT large telescope and detector array, which is designed as the next-generation neutrino telescope.

Neutrino physicist João Coelho attends the Neutrino 2024 conference held in Milan, Italy, announcing this breakthrough discovery and saying that he will describe it in detail in his later paper.

ARCA's spheres are designed to detect light radiation that can reach the seabed, including high-energy cosmic rays and massless particles such as neutrinos.

Neutrinos cannot be directly observed, but their existence can be inferred when neutrinos hit atoms in water, air or rock.

When this interaction occurs, ARCA's instruments can detect the resulting subatomic particle cascades.

The existence of super-energy neutrinos has been known for several years and is believed to be the result of some of the most violent events in the universe, such as the growth of supermassive black holes or supernova remnants.

These neutrinos can carry half a quadrillion electron volts (PeV) or higher energy, and the potential high-energy neutrino announced by Coelho may have an energy level of dozens of quadrillion electron volts.

ARCA can also detect light produced by other kinds of particles including neutrinos. It does not directly see neutrinos. When neutrinos hit molecules of air, water or underlying rock, a high-energy charged particle - a muon is produced, and when it passes through the detector, it will produce other showers of charged particles, which can then be captured.

Francis Halzen, a physicist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says that if this discovery is confirmed, it will be a fantastic event for particle physicists.