Transient Point Source Analyses in the ANTARES Neutrino Telescope

Abstract

The ANTARES telescope, with a duty cycle close to unity and a full hemisphere of the sky at all the times visible, is well suited to detect neutrinos produced in astrophysical transient sources. Assuming a known neutrino production period, the background and the sensitivity can be drastically improved by selecting a narrow time window around it. GRBs, {\mu}-quasars and AGNs are particularly attractive potential neutrino point sources since neutrinos and gamma-rays may be produced in hadronic interactions with the surrounding medium as they are the most likely sources of the observed ultra high energy cosmic rays. A strong correlation between the gamma-ray and the neutrino fluxes is expected in this scenario. ANTARES data has been analysed in various transient source analyses with the goal of detecting cosmic neutrinos from GRBs, {\mu}-quasars and AGNs. The sensitivity of a standard time-integrated point source search can be improved by a factor 2-3 by looking for neutrinos only during the most probable emission time. This information can be provided by the different satellite telescope types on the X-rays and gamma-rays wavelengths. The results of these different analyses will be presented.