Abstract
Searches for new physics in the coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering require a precise knowledge of the neutrino flux and energy spectrum. In this paper we investigate the feasibility and the performance of an experiment based on a ^{51}Cr source, whose neutrino spectrum is known and whose activity can be heat-monitored at few permil level. With a 5 MCi source placed at sim 25 cm from the detector, under an exposure of two ^{51}Cr half-lives (55.4 days), we evaluate 3900 (900) counts on a 2000 cm^3 target of germanium (sapphire) featuring an energy threshold of 8 (20) eV. To further increase the exposure, multiple activations of the same source could be possible.
Highlights
Predicted in 1973 [1] and observed for the first time in 2017 [2], the coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CEνNS) has been proposed to search for neutrino magnetic moment, Z’ exchange, non-standard interactions, sterile neutrinos [3,4,5,6,7], and to perform precision measurements of the nuclear form factor [8] and of sin2 θW at low momentum transfer [9]
Current searches for new physics in CEνNS could be limited by systematic errors on the neutrino flux and energy spectrum, as in the case of neutrino spallation sources, where the flux normalization precision is currently ∼ 10% [2], and power nuclear reactors, where models of the neutrinos emitted by the nuclear fuel limit the precision to several percent [19,20]
Artificial nuclear sources can be characterized with high precision and were already employed in the past in the GALLEX (51Cr) [21] and SAGE (51Cr, 37Ar) [22] experiments, and recently proposed by the SOX experiment (144Ce) [23] which, was stopped by difficulties occurred during the isotope mass production
Summary
Predicted in 1973 [1] and observed for the first time in 2017 [2], the coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CEνNS) has been proposed to search for neutrino magnetic moment, Z’ exchange, non-standard interactions, sterile neutrinos [3,4,5,6,7], and to perform precision measurements of the nuclear form factor [8] and of sin θW at low momentum transfer [9]. One advantage of this choice consists in the possibility of reusing the source of the GALLEX experiment, which is still owned by INFN: 36 kg of Cromium 38.6% enriched in 50Cr, that need to be activated at a nuclear reactor. CCDs are highly promising, provided that the energy conversion efficiency of nuclear recoils to electrons is precisely measured
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