Study of 40K-induced rates for a KM3NeT design option with multi-PMT optical modules

Radioactive decays of Potassium-40 (K-40) are a major source of photomultiplier signals in deep-sea neutrino telescope. Understanding the response of optical modules to this background is necessary for the efficient reconstruction of muon and neutrino events. On the other hand, high K-40-induced rates offer a possibility to calibrate a photomultipliers' efficiency, signal amplitude and timing characteristics. Using a Geant4-based Monte Carlo simulation, K-40-induced rates and PMT calibration methods were studied for a KM3NeT neutrino telescope design option with multi-PMT optical modules. The results of this study will be presented. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.