Experimental Particle and Astro-Particle Physics Seminar
Abstract: The CONUS+ reactor antineutrino experiment investigates coherent elastic neutrino nucleus scattering (CEvNS) on germanium nuclei at nuclear reactors. Due to the relatively high cross section of this interaction, this can be achieved with detectors in the kilogram mass range, whereas a typical neutrino detector using other interactions has a target mass of several tons. In 2023, the CONUS setup was relocated from a reactor in Brokdorf, Germany, to the Leibstadt nuclear power plant in Switzerland. There, the CONUS+ experiment acquires data at a distance of 20.7 m from the reactor core using optimized germanium detectors with very low energy thresholds. The first observation of a CEvNS signal from a nuclear reactor was achieved. In 119 days of reactor operation, (395±106) antineutrinos were measured, compared to a predicted number of (347±59) events.