Pacific Ocean Neutrino Experiment: Expected performance of the first cluster of strings

The Pacific Ocean Neutrino Experiment (P-ONE) is a proposed large-volume neutrino telescope in the Northeast Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Vancouver Island, Canada. With more than one cubic-kilometer of instrumented deep sea volume, P-ONE will target measuring high-energy neutrinos to shed light on the nature of astrophysical accelerators and the cosmos. With low expected scattering in the deep ocean, water-based detectors theoretically allow for sub-degree event resolution but carry various challenges. With changing ocean currents, and an abundance of organic matter, the detector geometry, water optical properties, and bioluminescent light background vary with time. This dynamic environment of the deep ocean requires rugged detector technologies and multiple, precise calibration and monitoring systems in order to enable and maintain the detector’s full scientific potential. In cooperation with Ocean Networks Canada (ONC), the P-ONE collaboration aims to develop long-lived, deep-sea detector systems which target continuous and precise monitoring to overcome these challenges. The first mooring of P-ONE will be deployed between 2024 and 2025, and will provide first insights into the performance of the developed detector systems. Following this first step, this work summarizes the ongoing efforts of the P-ONE collaboration targeting the development, simulation and operation of the first cluster of strings, and will present the expected performance of the calibration systems and physics potential.