Coherent Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering – Prospects and Experimental Challenges

by Victoria Wagner (Technical University Munich)

Thursday 27 Oct 2022, 16:00 → 18:00 Australia/Sydney

Coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CEvNS) offers a unique way to study neutrino properties and to search for new physics beyond the Standard Model. Even though the coherent cross-section is enhanced compared to other neutrino interactions, CEvNS is hard to detect due to its experimental signature of a (sub-) keV nuclear recoil. Many different experiments dedicated to studying CEvNS have started operation in the past few years or are being planned. In 2017, the COHERENT experiment reported the first observation of CEvNS on a CsI target using a stopped pion-decay at rest source. For low-energy reactor anti-neutrinos, this process remains unobserved so far.

In this talk, I will review the status of CEvNS experiments focusing on reactor neutrinos. Furthermore, I will discuss the common challenges faced in CEvNS searches such as (sub-) keV energy threshold, backgrounds, and the lack of sub-keV calibration sources. The CRAB experiment tackles the latter using a novel method to calibrate nuclear recoils at 100 eV. An accurate understanding of the detector response and quenching factors below 1 keV are prerequisites for searching for new physics.