The ANTARES detector

The ANTARES collaboration concluded the construction of a high energy neutrino telescope under the Mediterranean Sea, 40 km off the French coast. The complete detector is a 3-dimensional array of 12 lines equipped with 900 photomultipliers, installed at a depth of 2475 m. The detection principle relies on the observation of the Cherenkov light emitted by charged leptons produced by neutrinos interacting in the water and ground surrounding the detector. On March 2006, the first line was successfully connected to the junction box and since then data have been arriving at the shore station continuously. During spring 2008 the building phase was completed with the deployment and connection of the 2 last lines. First studies of the detector performances and preliminary results on reconstruction of atmospheric muons and neutrinos are presented.