Convergence of Chinese 10-km³ neutrino-telescope projects

Determine whether the TRIDENT, HUNT, and NEON projects will converge in their development or implementation as proposed 10-km³-scale neutrino telescopes.

Background

TRIDENT, HUNT, and NEON are three proposed Chinese neutrino-telescope projects targeting instrumented volumes of approximately 10 km³ in the South China Sea or, for HUNT, possibly Lake Baikal. The review describes their different development stages, including research and development, site exploration, and planned pathfinder deployments.

Because these projects pursue similar large-scale high-energy neutrino-observation goals, their possible convergence would affect the future organization and coverage of the global neutrino-telescope network. The review explicitly identifies whether such convergence will occur as unresolved.

References

Whether there will be some convergence among these three projects appears open at present.

— Neutrino Astronomy at High Energies - An Experimental Review  (2609.26436 - Spiering, 22 Sep 2026) in Section 3, subsection “Past, Present and Future Neutrino Telescopes with Optical Detection”