Massive stars (>8 M _⊙ ) often undergo intense mass loss through winds or eruptive events in the final stages of their evolution, leading to the formation of a dense circumstellar medium (CSM). This material, expelled months to years before core collapse, shapes the pre-explosion environment and influences the early supernova (SN) emission. In particular, the interaction of the SN ejecta with the dense CSM can power an extended emission into the ultraviolet(UV)/optical bands, as seen in a growing fraction of type II SN. Recent events such as SN 2023ixf and SN 2024ggi confirm the relevance of dense environments and highlight the value of UV observations. Moreover, fast blue optical transients may represent extreme cases of this interaction, possibly linked to more compact/massive CSM. In this work, we model the SN–CSM shock interaction in order to (i) estimate the maximum detection horizons and expected rates for future UV missions like ULTRASAT, and (ii) to estimate the intensity and expected rate of potential neutrino signals detectable by IceCube and KM3NeT. We then discuss the prospects for multi-messenger observations of such events in the near future.

The telecommunications industry is undergoing a major transformation driven by new technologies alongside economic challenges that are reshaping the entire ecosystem. The increasing digitalization of industries and sectors demands more advanced network infrastructures tailored to diverse market verticals and supporting businesses in their digital transformation. However, the ecosystem’s future remains uncertain, influenced by operators’ strategic choices, business model innovation, national and industrial policies, regulations, and cross-industry investments. This paper extends previous work by not only outlining possible evolutionary scenarios of the telecommunications ecosystem but also analyzing the reciprocal relationship between technological advances and these scenarios. Specifically, it investigates how emerging market, ecosystem, and economic conditions influence the evolution and application of technology, while technology itself drives changes in these domains. Focusing on the European ecosystem, with implications for global contexts, this integrated perspective aims to support market players and policymakers in navigating transformation and making informed decisions. This work responds to the Grand Challenge “Creating a vision of the future evolution of telecommunications” within the RESTART research program, the most important public R&D initiative ever launched in the Italian telecommunications sector, funded by the European Union / Italian Ministry of University and Research, with an investment of 116 million euros. Consistently with the elements outlined above, it focuses on the trajectory of the telecommunications ecosystem, providing a comprehensive and forward looking assessment of the key business, technology and regulatory drivers at both national and European level.

The increasing demand for mobile bandwidth is driving 5G networks toward the use of high-frequency spectrum, particularly the upper-6 GHz and mmWave bands. While these bands offer vast bandwidth potential, their propagation characteristics raise critical deployment challenges. This paper presents the first direct, on-field comparative evaluation of 5G standalone (SA) macro-cell deployments operating in these two bands, conducted in Milan, Italy. We show that the upper-6 GHz band can deliver wide-area urban coverage (up to 600 meters) with stable gigabit-level downlink throughput, even in Non-Line of Sight (NLoS) scenarios. mmWave, traditionally deemed unsuitable for NLoS, exhibits strong performance via urban reflections, achieving up to 1.3 Gbps in downlink and 250 Mbps in uplink. Furthermore, outdoor-to-indoor connectivity at mmWave frequencies proves viable through glass facades, challenging pessimistic assumptions about penetration losses. These findings, derived from synchronized deployments and extensive measurements, provide new insights into the complementary roles of these bands and the practical feasibility of their integration into future 5G networks.

KM3NeT/ORCA is an underwater neutrino telescope under construction in the Mediterranean Sea. Its primary scientific goal is to measure the atmospheric neutrino oscillation parameters and to determine the neutrino mass ordering. ORCA can constrain the oscillation parameters $\Delta m^{2}_{31}$ and $\theta_{23}$ by reconstructing the arrival direction and energy of multi-GeV neutrinos crossing the Earth. Searches for deviations from the Standard Model of particle physics in the forward scattering of neutrinos inside Earth matter, produced by Non-Standard Interactions, can be conducted by investigating distortions of the standard oscillation pattern of neutrinos of all flavours. This work reports on the results of the search for non-standard neutrino interactions using the first six detection units of ORCA and 433 kton-years of exposure. No significant deviation from standard interactions was found in a sample of 5828 events reconstructed in the 1 GeV$-$1 TeV energy range. The flavour structure of the non-standard coupling was constrained at 90\% confidence level to be $|\varepsilon_{\mu\tau} | \leq 5.4 \times 10^{-3}$, $|\varepsilon_{e\tau} | \leq 7.4 \times 10^{-2}$, $|\varepsilon_{e\mu} | \leq 5.6 \times 10^{-2}$ and $-0.015 \leq \varepsilon_{\tau\tau} - \varepsilon_{\mu\mu} \leq 0.017$. The results are comparable to the current most stringent limits placed on the parameters by other experiments.

In the era of precision measurements of neutrino oscillation parameters, it is necessary for experiments to disentangle discrepancies that may indicate physics beyond the Standard Model in the neutrino sector. KM3NeT/ORCA is a water Cherenkov neutrino detector under construction and anchored at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. The detector is designed to study the oscillations of atmospheric neutrinos and determine the neutrino mass ordering. This paper focuses on the initial configuration of ORCA, referred to as ORCA6, which comprises six out of the foreseen 115 detection units of photosensors. A high-purity neutrino sample was extracted during 2020 and 2021, corresponding to an exposure of 433 kton-years. This sample is analysed following a binned log-likelihood approach to search for invisible neutrino decay, in a three-flavour neutrino oscillation scenario, where the third neutrino mass state ν3 decays into an invisible state, e.g. a sterile neutrino. The resulting best fit of the invisible neutrino decay parameter is α_3=0.92_-0.57^+1.08×10^-4 eV2, corresponding to a scenario with θ23 in the second octant and normal neutrino mass ordering. The results are consistent with the Standard Model, within a 2.1 σ interval.

Neutrinos described as an open quantum system may interact with the environment which introduces stochastic perturbations to their quantum phase. This mechanism leads to a loss of coherence along the propagation of the neutrino - a phenomenon commonly referred to as decoherence - and ultimately, to a modification of the oscillation probabilities. Fluctuations in space-time, as envisaged by various theories of quantum gravity, are a potential candidate for a decoherence-inducing environment. Consequently, the search for decoherence provides a rare opportunity to investigate quantum gravitational effects which are usually beyond the reach of current experiments. In this work, quantum decoherence effects are searched for in neutrino data collected by the KM3NeT/ORCA detector from January 2020 to November 2021. The analysis focuses on atmospheric neutrinos within the energy range of a few GeV to 100 GeV. Adopting the open quantum system framework, decoherence is described in a phenomenological manner with the strength of the effect given by the parameters Γ_21 and Γ_31. Following previous studies, a dependence of the type Γ_ij∝ (E/E_0)^n on the neutrino energy is assumed and the cases n = -2,-1 are explored. No significant deviation with respect to the standard oscillation hypothesis is observed. Therefore, 90 % CL upper limits are estimated as Γ_21 < 4.6· 10^-21GeV and Γ_31 < 8.4· 10^-21GeV for n = -2, and Γ_21 < 1.9· 10^-22GeV and Γ_31 < 2.7· 10^-22GeV for n = -1, respectively.

The measurement of the flux of muons produced in cosmic ray air showers is essential for the study of primary cosmic rays. Such measurements are important in extensive air shower detectors to assess the energy spectrum and the chemical composition of the cosmic ray flux, complementary to the information provided by fluorescence detectors. Detailed simulations of the cosmic ray air showers are carried out, using codes such as CORSIKA, to estimate the muon flux at sea level. These simulations are based on the choice of hadronic interaction models, for which improvements have been implemented in the post-LHC era. In this work, a deficit in simulations that use state-of-the-art QCD models with respect to the measurement deep underwater with the KM3NeT neutrino detectors is reported. The KM3NeT/ARCA and KM3NeT/ORCA neutrino telescopes are sensitive to TeV muons originating mostly from primary cosmic rays with energies around 10 TeV. The predictions of state-of-the-art QCD models show that the deficit with respect to the data is constant in zenith angle; no dependency on the water overburden is observed. The observed deficit at a depth of several kilometres is compatible with the deficit seen in the comparison of the simulations and measurements at sea level.

KM3NeT/ORCA is a water Cherenkov neutrino detector under construction and anchored at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. The detector is designed to study oscillations of atmospheric neutrinos and determine the neutrino mass ordering. This paper focuses on an initial configuration of ORCA, referred to as ORCA6, which comprises six out of the foreseen 115 detection units of photo-sensors. A high-purity neutrino sample was extracted, corresponding to an exposure of 433 kton-years. The sample of 5828 neutrino candidates is analysed following a binned log-likelihood method in the reconstructed energy and cosine of the zenith angle. The atmospheric oscillation parameters are measured to be sin^2θ_23=0.51_-0.05^+0.04 , and Δm_31^2=2.18_-0.35^+0.25×10^-3eV^2∪{-2.25,-1.76}×10^-3 eV2 at 68

The advancement of Connected and Autonomous Vehicle (CAV) technology promises to revolutionize transportation systems, but robust and effective communication among CAVs is needed to ensure safety and efficiency. Vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, particularly vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication, offers direct vehicular data exchange without burdening network infrastructure. However, the dynamic nature of vehicular scenarios and the strict application requirements pose critical challenges in the radio resource allocation domain. To address these challenges, this paper proposes an Open RAN (O-RAN)-based solution, leveraging O-RAN’s flexibility and programmability. The proposed solution employs standardized interfaces to collect and analyze traffic data, enabling centralized cross-base station resource allocation. Implemented as an O-RAN xApp, the solution demonstrates superior performance in large-scale vehicular simulations compared to existing radio allocation schemes, showcasing effectiveness in managing diverse traffic profiles and minimizing allocation collisions with negligible overhead. Evaluation against Mode 2 demonstrates the solution’s efficacy with respect to the standard. Overall, the study highlights for the first time O-RAN’s potential in managing radio resources for V2V communication.

KM3NeT/ARCA is a Cherenkov neutrino telescope under construction in the Mediterranean sea, optimised for the detection of astrophysical neutrinos with energies above ∼1 TeV. In this work, using Monte Carlo simulations including all-flavour neutrinos, the integrated and differential sensitivities for KM3NeT/ARCA are presented considering the case of a diffuse neutrino flux as well as extended and point-like neutrino sources. This analysis is applied to Starburst Galaxies demonstrating that the detector has the capability of tracing TeV neutrinos from these sources. Remarkably, after eight years, a hard power-law spectrum from the nearby Small Magellanic Cloud can be constrained. The sensitivity and discovery potential for NGC 1068 is also evaluated showing that KM3NeT/ARCA will discriminate between different astrophysical components of the measured neutrino flux after 3 years of data taking.

Direct communication among vehicles, namely vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), as part of vehicle-to-everything (V2X) system, will enable most of the upcoming Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) applications. Nevertheless, the challenging requirements imposed by the vehicular environment necessitate advanced control mechanisms. Traditional Radio Access Networks (RANs) lack the necessary flexibility to address these control needs. The emerging Open RAN (O-RAN) concept offers a promising solution for orchestrating the V2X network. However, the seamless integration of these ecosystems remains an unresolved challenge. This article promotes a novel integration architecture that ensures the V2X control within O-RAN. We propose a novel architecture that establishes a low frequencies O-RAN-based control plane to ensure reliable and efficient multihops connectivity among CAVs at millimeter wave (mmWave). To examine and test the technological feasibility of this integrated architecture, we extend current Network Simulator 3 (ns-3) modules, leading to a simulation framework for experimenting with O-RAN-empowered V2X system. Such an integrated framework is used to show the benefits in a specific V2V challenge: link and relays selection. This case study serves as a practical example of a new O-RAN solution that effectively addresses the challenges of V2X communications. Numerical results showcase the improved reliability up to 60 to distributed and unmanaged solutions, supporting the viability of the proposed architecture

In this work, a search for nuclearites of strange quark matter by using nine years of ANTARES data taken in the period 2009–2017 is presented. The passage through matter of these particles is simulated taking into account a detailed description of the detector response to nuclearites and of the data acquisition conditions. A down-going flux of cosmic nuclearites with Galactic velocities ( β = 10 -3 ) was considered for this study. The mass threshold for detecting these particles at the detector level is 4 × 10 13 GeV/ c 2 . Upper limits on the nuclearite flux for masses up to 10 17 GeV/ c 2 at the level of ∼ 5 × 10 -17 cm -2 s -1 sr -1 are obtained. These are the first upper limits on nuclearites established with a neutrino telescope and the most stringent ever set for Galactic velocities.

We develop a novel technique to exploit the extensive data sets provided by underwater neutrino telescopes to gain information on bioluminescence in the deep sea. The passive nature of the telescopes gives us the unique opportunity to infer information on bioluminescent organisms without actively interfering with them. We propose a statistical method that allows us to reconstruct the light emission of individual organisms, as well as their location and movement. A mathematical model is built to describe the measurement process of underwater neutrino telescopes and the signal generation of the biological organisms. The Metric Gaussian Variational Inference algorithm is used to reconstruct the model parameters using photon counts recorded by photomultiplier tubes. We apply this method to synthetic data sets and data collected by the ANTARES neutrino telescope. The telescope is located 40 km off the French coast and fixed to the sea floor at a depth of 2475 m. The runs with synthetic data reveal that we can model the emitted bioluminescent flashes of the organisms. Furthermore, we find that the spatial resolution of the localization of light sources highly depends on the configuration of the telescope. Precise measurements of the efficiencies of the detectors and the attenuation length of the water are crucial to reconstruct the light emission. Finally, the application to ANTARES data reveals the first localizations of bioluminescent organisms using neutrino telescope data.

Astrophysical neutrinos may be produced during the coalescence of compact objects, in particular those involving neutron stars. Such mergers have been identified through gravitational wave detections by the LIGO and Virgo collaborations and reported in published catalogs. The ANTARES and KM3NeT deep-sea neutrino telescopes are sensitive to neutrino interactions in a wide range of energies, from MeV to PeV. The under-construction KM3NeT telescope covers this energy range with two detectors: ORCA for neutrinos below the TeV and ARCA for TeV--PeV, extending the capabilities of the now-decommissioned ANTARES telescope. This contribution presents the search for neutrinos in time and space correlation with the gravitational wave signals reported during the Third Observing Run of LIGO/Virgo. The ANTARES analysis uses track-like and shower-like events originating from high-energy neutrino interactions. It focuses on a $\pm 500$-second time window centered on the time of the merger given by the gravitational wave signal. Two KM3NeT studies are carried out using the data from the partial KM3NeT/ORCA detector: a search for upgoing tracks induced by GeV-TeV neutrinos in the same window as above; and a search for a MeV neutrino signal in a shorter 2-second time window. The results are provided in terms of upper limits on the incoming neutrino flux in the various energy ranges and the total isotropic energies emitted in neutrinos. High-energy observations are also stacked to probe the typical neutrino emission from different populations of mergers. The complementarity of ANTARES and KM3NeT results is also explored.

By constantly monitoring a very large portion of the sky, neutrino telescopes are well-designed to detect neutrinos emitted by transient astrophysical events. Real-time searches with the ANTARES telescope have been performed to look for neutrino candidates coincident with gamma-ray bursts detected by the Swift and Fermi satellites, high-energy neutrino events registered by IceCube, transient events from blazars monitored by HAWC, photon-neutrino coincidences by AMON notices and gravitational wave candidates observed by LIGO/Virgo. By requiring temporal coincidence, this approach increases the sensitivity and the significance of a potential discovery. This paper summarises the results of the follow-up performed of the ANTARES telescope between January 2014 and February 2022, which corresponds to the end of the data-taking period.

This article reports the first observation of the Moon and the Sun shadows in the sky distribution of cosmic-ray induced muons measured by the KM3NeT/ORCA detector. The analysed data-taking period spans from February 2020 to November 2021, when the detector had 6 Detection Units deployed at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, each composed of 18 Digital Optical Modules. The shadows induced by the Moon and the Sun were detected at their nominal position with a statistical significance of 4.2 σ and 6.2 σ , and an angular resolution of σ _res=0.49^∘ and σ _res=0.66^∘ , respectively, consistent with the prediction of 0.53^∘ from simulations. This early result confirms the effectiveness of the detector calibration, in time, position and orientation and the accuracy of the event direction reconstruction. This also demonstrates the performance and the competitiveness of the detector in terms of pointing accuracy and angular resolution.

In the quest for high-energy neutrino sources, the Astrophysical Multimessenger Observatory Network has implemented a new search by combining data from the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory and the Astronomy with a Neutrino Telescope and Abyss environmental RESearch (ANTARES) neutrino telescope. Using the same analysis strategy as in a previous detector combination of HAWC and IceCube data, we perform a search for coincidences in HAWC and ANTARES events that are below the threshold for sending public alerts in each individual detector. Data were collected between 2015 July and 2020 February with a live time of 4.39 yr. Over this time period, three coincident events with an estimated false-alarm rate of <1 coincidence per year were found. This number is consistent with background expectations.

The KM3NeT research infrastructure is unconstruction in the Mediterranean Sea. KM3NeT will study atmospheric and astrophysical neutrinos with two multi-purpose neutrino detectors, ARCA and ORCA, primarily aimed at GeV–PeV neutrinos. Thanks to the multi-photomultiplier tube design of the digital optical modules, KM3NeT is capable of detecting the neutrino burst from a Galactic or near-Galactic core-collapse supernova. This potential is already exploitable with the first detection units deployed in the sea. This paper describes the real-time implementation of the supernova neutrino search, operating on the two KM3NeT detectors since the first months of 2019. A quasi-online astronomy analysis is introduced to study the time profile of the detected neutrinos for especially significant events. The mechanism of generation and distribution of alerts, as well as the integration into the SNEWS and SNEWS 2.0 global alert systems, are described. The approach for the follow-up of external alerts with a search for a neutrino excess in the archival data is defined. Finally, an overview of the current detector capabilities and a report after the first two years of operation are given.

Network slicing might radically change the relations among different actors of the telecommunications ecosystem, where new players, active in different markets, could benefit of tailored connectivity services based on different business strategies. We argue that for fully exploiting the opportunities offered by network slicing, dynamic sharing of resources is crucial not only for efficiency and cost savings, but also for enabling a resource negotiation that can unleash the potential of new business relations. We develop an automated mechanism that allows tenants to take strategic decisions to optimize the management of their slices based on their instantaneous demands and model their interaction as in marketplace. We integrate our solution, based on game theory, on a 3GPP calibrated system level simulator, where a slice-aware scheduler enforces the tenants’ decisions at the Nash Equilibrium (NE). We compare our proposal with a static baseline, that assigns a fixed share of resources to each slice, and show that, by dynamically trading resources in the market, tenants achieve lower costs, and, therefore, higher profits. We provide an algorithmic implementation that guarantees the convergence to a single NE and test the computational complexity of our algorithm to an increasing number of slices in the system.

Network Function Virtualization has dramatically increased the flexibility in the deployment of network services, however the execution of virtual functions on compute nodes equipped with general purpose hardware can result in worse performance compared to the middleboxes they aim to replace. The use of programmable network hardware to perform part of the processing at line rate can drastically increase the throughput while retaining the flexibility.This work presents a new framework, called CHIMA, which extends the capabilities of other frameworks proposed in the literature for the deployment of heterogeneous Service Function Chains (SFCs). Heterogeneous SFCs comprise a combination of virtual functions meant to be executed in containers running on general purpose hardware and of functions for programmable switches written using the P4 language. CHIMA exploits programmable data planes to perform real time monitoring of the services through In-band Network Telemetry and uses the collected information to guarantee the requested levels of performance by redeploying and rerouting sections that are affected by adverse conditions, allowing applications with critical requirements to be deployed as SFCs.The solution has been tested by emulating various topologies and services on the FOP4 platform with bmv2 switches. The analysis shows that the system is capable of detecting faults in the order of hundreds of milliseconds, and the overhead it causes in the process of redeployment is negligible compared to the startup time of functions. Measurements also reveal that the current bottleneck for the runtime relocation of heterogeneous functions is the redeployment and reconfiguration of P4 programs.