Physics driven optimisation of the TRIDENT neutrino telescope

Parallel talk presented at the XXI International Workshop on Neutrino Telescopes - Padova 29 September - 3 October 2025 (https://agenda.infn.it/event/44606/) On behalf of the TRIDENT Collaboration Abstract: Building on the remarkable successes in neutrino astronomy in recent years, TRIDENT is a planned, large-scale neutrino telescope that seeks to advance the frontier of high-energy astrophysical neutrino detection. TRIDENT is to be deployed 3.5 km deep in the “Hai-ling Basin” of the South China Sea, expecting to span approximately 10 km³ of seawater with ~km-long strings equipped with optical modules. Its design targets two primary scientific goals: rapid identification of multiple astrophysical neutrino sources and accurately measuring the flavour composition of the observed neutrino flux. Meeting both of these objectives simultaneously demands a holistic optimization of the detector’s geometry, which impacts angular resolution, detection efficiency of each neutrino flavour, and the accessible energy spectrum. This talk will explore how TRIDENT’s design choices influence its ability to uncover new sources and resolve their flavour signatures. Additionally, developments in enhancing sensitivity core-collapse supernovae will be presented.