Baikal neutrino telescope: Status, results, and prospects of development

The main physical results obtained with the Baikal neutrino telescope NT200 during the period 1998–2003 are reviewed: the limits for the diffuse flux of high-energy neutrinos, high-energy muons, and magnetic monopoles and the results of search for neutrinos from the center of the Earth due to annihilation of weakly interacting massive particles and from local neutrino sources. In April, 2005, the neutrino telescope NT200 was extended by introduction of three new strings, located at a distance of 100 m from the NT200 center. The new deep-water complex NT200+ has an effective volume for detecting cascades from high-energy neutrinos larger than that of NT200 by a factor of 4. At a cascade energy of 10 PeV, the effective volume of the new complex is 107 m3. Further development of the Baikal neutrino experiment is related to the design and fabrication of a detector with a volume of about 1 km3.