The AMANDA Experiment : status and prospects for indirect Dark Matter detection

At the AMANDA South Pole site, four new holes were drilled to depths 2050m to 2180 m and instrumented with 86 photomultipliers (PMTs) at depths1520-2000 m. Of these PMTs 79 are working, with 4-ns timing resolutionand noise rates 300 to 600 Hz. Various diagnostic devices were deployedand are working. An observed factor 60 increase in scattering length anda sharpening of the distribution of arrival times of laser pulses relative tomeasurements at 800-1000 m showed that bubbles are absent below 1500 m.Absorption lengths are 100 to 150 m at wavelengths in the blue and UV to337 nm. Muon coincidences are seen between the SPASE air shower arrayand the AMANDA PMTs at 800-1000 m and 1500-1900 m. The muon trackrate is 30 Hz for 8-fold triggers and 10 Hz for 10-fold triggers. The presentarray is the nucleus for a future expanded array. The potential of AMANDAfor SUSY dark matter search through the detection of high-energy neutrinosfrom the centre of the Sun or Earth is discussed.