Coherent Elastic Neutrino Nucleus Scattering
- Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States). et al.
Coherent Elastic Neutrino Nucleus Scattering (CENNS) has yet to be observed since its first prediction in 1974. The CENNS cross-section is precisely known in the Standard Model (SM). It is considerably larger than the other neutrino interaction channels at MeV energies. If measured at its predicted value, CENNS can be a very powerful tool for future neutrino oscillation experiments. Alternatively, any deviation from the very robust SM prediction could be a window to beyond-SM physics. The discovery of CENNS requires an intense source of low energy neutrinos, and a large-scale low energy threshold detector, both of which complement and build on existing programs at Fermilab. The Booster Neutrino Beamline (BNB) at Fermilab is a surprisingly powerful source of pion decay-at-rest ($$\pi$$DAR) neutrinos. The energy spectrum and flux of neutrinos in the backward direction (far-off-axis) of the BNB is excellent for a CENNS discovery measurement. At the closest practical location, the $$\pi$$DAR neutrino flux at BNB would be about a fifth of the neutrino flux of Spallation Neutron Source (SNS at Oak Ridge). The BNB site is preferable in almost every other aspect, however. First, the beam duty factor of BNB (2.5x10-5) is about a factor of four better, which will help to reduce ambient backgrounds. Second, the potential experiment site, close to the BNB target, allows optimal placement of the detectors, with minimal sitting issues. The CENNS experiment would be completely parasitic to any running of the BNB. It would require no changes to the beamline, and place no additional requirements on the running mode or times. The $$\pi$$DAR neutrinos from the BNB are a by-product of running the beamline for MicroBooNE, and will be available for the foreseeable future. The CENNS detector would be a ton-scale single-phase Liquid Argon (LAr) detector, placed inside a water shield with an active cosmic ray veto. The low energy threshold and low background detector technology is already well developed thanks to work over the last decade in Dark Matter detector physics. Moreover, Fermilab is equipped with very strong technical and engineering resources in liquid argon detector development. One issue that must be addressed prior to the development of a full CENNS proposal is the question of whether the beam-related fast neutron background is low enough that it can be practically shielded.
- Research Organization:
- Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-07CH11359
- OSTI ID:
- 1156549
- Report Number(s):
- FERMILAB-PROPOSAL--1040
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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