Speaker
Description
We present POLARIS, a new sparse radial detector design for an underwater neutrino telescope. The design targets multi-PeV horizontal tracks with a minimal instrumentation density of around 1000 Digital Optical Modules. We evaluate the astronomy potential of this design through 5-sigma point source and diffuse flux detection limit, benchmarking against IceCube, KM3NeT ARCA, TRIDENT, NEON, TAMBO and RNO-G, spanning ice, water, and air-shower based detection techniques. Beyond their role in neutrino astronomy, neutrino telescopes have demonstrated remarkable ability to probe physics beyond the standard model, evolving into multi-purpose instruments competing with accelerator-based searches. POLARIS is an effective design to reach next-generation sensitivity at PeV energies either as a standalone instrument or as an extension of existing or planned underwater telescopes.