Abstract
We explore the sensitivity to new physics of the recently proposed vIOLETA experiment: a 10 kg Skipper Charged Coupled Device detector deployed 12 meters away from a commercial nuclear reactor core. We investigate two broad classes of models which benefit from the very low energy recoil threshold of these detectors, namely neutrino magnetic moments and light mediators coupled to neutrinos and quarks or electrons. We find that this experimental setup is very sensitive to light, weakly coupled new physics, and in particular that it could probe potential explanations of the event excess observed in XENON1T. We also provide a detailed study on the dependence of the sensitivity on the experimental setup assumptions and on the neutrino flux systematic uncertainties.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Explore related subjects
Discover the latest articles, news and stories from top researchers in related subjects.Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
COHERENT collaboration, Observation of coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering, Science 357 (2017) 1123 [arXiv:1708.01294] [INSPIRE].
D.Z. Freedman, Coherent neutrino nucleus scattering as a probe of the weak neutral current, Phys. Rev. D 9 (1974) 1389 [INSPIRE].
R. Harnik, J. Kopp and P.A.N. Machado, Exploring ν signals in dark matter detectors, JCAP 07 (2012) 026 [arXiv:1202.6073] [INSPIRE].
J. Colaresi et al., First results from a search for coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering at a reactor site, Phys. Rev. D 104 (2021) 072003 [arXiv:2108.02880] [INSPIRE].
CONNIE collaboration, Search for light mediators in the low-energy data of the CONNIE reactor neutrino experiment, JHEP 04 (2020) 054 [arXiv:1910.04951] [INSPIRE].
CONNIE collaboration, Exploring low-energy neutrino physics with the coherent neutrino nucleus interaction experiment, Phys. Rev. D 100 (2019) 092005 [arXiv:1906.02200] [INSPIRE].
CONNIE collaboration, Search for coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering at a nuclear reactor with CONNIE 2019 data, arXiv:2110.13033 [INSPIRE].
CONUS collaboration, Constraints on elastic neutrino nucleus scattering in the fully coherent regime from the CONUS experiment, Phys. Rev. Lett. 126 (2021) 041804 [arXiv:2011.00210] [INSPIRE].
CONUS collaboration, Novel constraints on neutrino physics beyond the Standard Model from the CONUS experiment, arXiv:2110.02174 [INSPIRE].
G. Fernandez-Moroni, P.A.N. Machado, I. Martinez-Soler, Y.F. Perez-Gonzalez, D. Rodrigues and S. Rosauro-Alcaraz, The physics potential of a reactor neutrino experiment with Skipper CCDs: measuring the weak mixing angle, JHEP 03 (2021) 186 [arXiv:2009.10741] [INSPIRE].
SENSEI collaboration, Single-electron and single-photon sensitivity with a silicon Skipper CCD, Phys. Rev. Lett. 119 (2017) 131802 [arXiv:1706.00028] [INSPIRE].
G. Fernandez Moroni, J. Estrada, G. Cancelo, S.E. Holland, E.E. Paolini and H.T. Diehl, Sub-electron readout noise in a Skipper CCD fabricated on high resistivity silicon, Exper. Astron. 34 (2012) 43 [arXiv:1106.1839] [INSPIRE].
M. Ibe, W. Nakano, Y. Shoji and K. Suzuki, Migdal effect in dark matter direct detection experiments, JHEP 03 (2018) 194 [arXiv:1707.07258] [INSPIRE].
N.F. Bell, J.B. Dent, J.L. Newstead, S. Sabharwal and T.J. Weiler, Migdal effect and photon bremsstrahlung in effective field theories of dark matter direct detection and coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering, Phys. Rev. D 101 (2020) 015012 [arXiv:1905.00046] [INSPIRE].
S. Knapen, J. Kozaczuk and T. Lin, Migdal effect in semiconductors, Phys. Rev. Lett. 127 (2021) 081805 [arXiv:2011.09496] [INSPIRE].
J. Liao, H. Liu and D. Marfatia, Coherent neutrino scattering and the Migdal effect on the quenching factor, Phys. Rev. D 104 (2021) 015005 [arXiv:2104.01811] [INSPIRE].
P. Coloma, M.C. Gonzalez-Garcia, M. Maltoni and T. Schwetz, COHERENT enlightenment of the neutrino dark side, Phys. Rev. D 96 (2017) 115007 [arXiv:1708.02899] [INSPIRE].
Y. Farzan and M. Tortola, Neutrino oscillations and non-standard interactions, Front. in Phys. 6 (2018) 10 [arXiv:1710.09360] [INSPIRE].
J. Liao and D. Marfatia, COHERENT constraints on non-standard neutrino interactions, Phys. Lett. B 775 (2017) 54 [arXiv:1708.04255] [INSPIRE].
E. Bertuzzo, F.F. Deppisch, S. Kulkarni, Y.F. Perez Gonzalez and R. Zukanovich Funchal, Dark matter and exotic neutrino interactions in direct detection searches, JHEP 04 (2017) 073 [arXiv:1701.07443] [INSPIRE].
I. Esteban, M.C. Gonzalez-Garcia, M. Maltoni, I. Martinez-Soler and J. Salvado, Updated constraints on non-standard interactions from global analysis of oscillation data, JHEP 08 (2018) 180 [Addendum ibid. 12 (2020) 152] [arXiv:1805.04530] [INSPIRE].
D. Aristizabal Sierra, V. De Romeri and N. Rojas, COHERENT analysis of neutrino generalized interactions, Phys. Rev. D 98 (2018) 075018 [arXiv:1806.07424] [INSPIRE].
W. Altmannshofer, M. Tammaro and J. Zupan, Non-standard neutrino interactions and low energy experiments, JHEP 09 (2019) 083 [Erratum ibid. 11 (2021) 113] [arXiv:1812.02778] [INSPIRE].
M. Abdullah, J.B. Dent, B. Dutta, G.L. Kane, S. Liao and L.E. Strigari, Coherent elastic neutrino nucleus scattering as a probe of a Z′ through kinetic and mass mixing effects, Phys. Rev. D 98 (2018) 015005 [arXiv:1803.01224] [INSPIRE].
M.C. Gonzalez-Garcia, M. Maltoni, Y.F. Perez-Gonzalez and R. Zukanovich Funchal, Neutrino discovery limit of dark matter direct detection experiments in the presence of non-standard interactions, JHEP 07 (2018) 019 [arXiv:1803.03650] [INSPIRE].
C. Giunti, General COHERENT constraints on neutrino nonstandard interactions, Phys. Rev. D 101 (2020) 035039 [arXiv:1909.00466] [INSPIRE].
D. Aristizabal Sierra, V. De Romeri and N. Rojas, CP violating effects in coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering processes, JHEP 09 (2019) 069 [arXiv:1906.01156] [INSPIRE].
I. Bischer and W. Rodejohann, General neutrino interactions from an effective field theory perspective, Nucl. Phys. B 947 (2019) 114746 [arXiv:1905.08699] [INSPIRE].
B.C. Canas, E.A. Garces, O.G. Miranda, A. Parada and G. Sanchez Garcia, Interplay between nonstandard and nuclear constraints in coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering experiments, Phys. Rev. D 101 (2020) 035012 [arXiv:1911.09831] [INSPIRE].
K.S. Babu, P.S.B. Dev, S. Jana and A. Thapa, Non-standard interactions in radiative neutrino mass models, JHEP 03 (2020) 006 [arXiv:1907.09498] [INSPIRE].
P.B. Denton and J. Gehrlein, A statistical analysis of the COHERENT data and applications to new physics, JHEP 04 (2021) 266 [arXiv:2008.06062] [INSPIRE].
L.J. Flores, N. Nath and E. Peinado, Non-standard neutrino interactions in U(1)′ model after COHERENT data, JHEP 06 (2020) 045 [arXiv:2002.12342] [INSPIRE].
J.B. Dent et al., New directions for axion searches via scattering at reactor neutrino experiments, Phys. Rev. Lett. 124 (2020) 211804 [arXiv:1912.05733] [INSPIRE].
M. Pospelov, Neutrino physics with dark matter experiments and the signature of new baryonic neutral currents, Phys. Rev. D 84 (2011) 085008 [arXiv:1103.3261] [INSPIRE].
M. Pospelov and J. Pradler, Elastic scattering signals of solar neutrinos with enhanced baryonic currents, Phys. Rev. D 85 (2012) 113016 [Erratum ibid. 88 (2013) 039904] [arXiv:1203.0545] [INSPIRE].
D.K. Papoulias and T.S. Kosmas, COHERENT constraints to conventional and exotic neutrino physics, Phys. Rev. D 97 (2018) 033003 [arXiv:1711.09773] [INSPIRE].
Y. Farzan, M. Lindner, W. Rodejohann and X.-J. Xu, Probing neutrino coupling to a light scalar with coherent neutrino scattering, JHEP 05 (2018) 066 [arXiv:1802.05171] [INSPIRE].
C. Bœhm, D.G. Cerdeño, P.A.N. Machado, A. Olivares-Del Campo, E. Perdomo and E. Reid, How high is the neutrino floor?, JCAP 01 (2019) 043 [arXiv:1809.06385] [INSPIRE].
P.B. Denton, Y. Farzan and I.M. Shoemaker, Testing large non-standard neutrino interactions with arbitrary mediator mass after COHERENT data, JHEP 07 (2018) 037 [arXiv:1804.03660] [INSPIRE].
M. Cadeddu, C. Giunti, K.A. Kouzakov, Y.F. Li, A.I. Studenikin and Y.Y. Zhang, Neutrino charge radii from COHERENT elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering, Phys. Rev. D 98 (2018) 113010 [Erratum ibid. 101 (2020) 059902] [arXiv:1810.05606] [INSPIRE].
J. Billard, J. Johnston and B.J. Kavanagh, Prospects for exploring new physics in coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering, JCAP 11 (2018) 016 [arXiv:1805.01798] [INSPIRE].
B. Dutta, S. Liao, S. Sinha and L.E. Strigari, Searching for beyond the Standard Model physics with COHERENT energy and timing data, Phys. Rev. Lett. 123 (2019) 061801 [arXiv:1903.10666] [INSPIRE].
M. Cadeddu et al., Constraints on light vector mediators through coherent elastic neutrino nucleus scattering data from COHERENT, JHEP 01 (2021) 116 [arXiv:2008.05022] [INSPIRE].
J. Billard, L.E. Strigari and E. Figueroa-Feliciano, Solar neutrino physics with low-threshold dark matter detectors, Phys. Rev. D 91 (2015) 095023 [arXiv:1409.0050] [INSPIRE].
D.G. Cerdeño, M. Fairbairn, T. Jubb, P.A.N. Machado, A.C. Vincent and C. Bœhm, Physics from solar neutrinos in dark matter direct detection experiments, JHEP 05 (2016) 118 [Erratum ibid. 09 (2016) 048] [arXiv:1604.01025] [INSPIRE].
D.W.P.d. Amaral, D.G. Cerdeno, P. Foldenauer and E. Reid, Solar neutrino probes of the muon anomalous magnetic moment in the gauged \( \mathrm{U}{(1)}_{L_{\mu }-{L}_{\tau }} \), JHEP 12 (2020) 155 [arXiv:2006.11225] [INSPIRE].
J.A. Formaggio, E. Figueroa-Feliciano and A.J. Anderson, Sterile neutrinos, coherent scattering and oscillometry measurements with low-temperature bolometers, Phys. Rev. D 85 (2012) 013009 [arXiv:1107.3512] [INSPIRE].
A.J. Anderson et al., Measuring active-to-sterile neutrino oscillations with neutral current coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering, Phys. Rev. D 86 (2012) 013004 [arXiv:1201.3805] [INSPIRE].
B. Dutta, Y. Gao, R. Mahapatra, N. Mirabolfathi, L.E. Strigari and J.W. Walker, Sensitivity to oscillation with a sterile fourth generation neutrino from ultra-low threshold neutrino-nucleus coherent scattering, Phys. Rev. D 94 (2016) 093002 [arXiv:1511.02834] [INSPIRE].
B.C. Cañas, E.A. Garcés, O.G. Miranda and A. Parada, The reactor antineutrino anomaly and low energy threshold neutrino experiments, Phys. Lett. B 776 (2018) 451 [arXiv:1708.09518] [INSPIRE].
T.S. Kosmas, D.K. Papoulias, M. Tortola and J.W.F. Valle, Probing light sterile neutrino signatures at reactor and Spallation Neutron Source neutrino experiments, Phys. Rev. D 96 (2017) 063013 [arXiv:1703.00054] [INSPIRE].
C. Blanco, D. Hooper and P. Machado, Constraining sterile neutrino interpretations of the LSND and MiniBooNE anomalies with coherent neutrino scattering experiments, Phys. Rev. D 101 (2020) 075051 [arXiv:1901.08094] [INSPIRE].
O.G. Miranda, D.K. Papoulias, O. Sanders, M. Tórtola and J.W.F. Valle, Future CEvNS experiments as probes of lepton unitarity and light-sterile neutrinos, Phys. Rev. D 102 (2020) 113014 [arXiv:2008.02759] [INSPIRE].
Y. Cui, M. Pospelov and J. Pradler, Signatures of dark radiation in neutrino and dark matter detectors, Phys. Rev. D 97 (2018) 103004 [arXiv:1711.04531] [INSPIRE].
S.-F. Ge and I.M. Shoemaker, Constraining photon portal dark matter with Texono and coherent data, JHEP 11 (2018) 066 [arXiv:1710.10889] [INSPIRE].
E. Bertuzzo, S. Jana, P.A.N. Machado and R. Zukanovich Funchal, Dark neutrino portal to explain MiniBooNE excess, Phys. Rev. Lett. 121 (2018) 241801 [arXiv:1807.09877] [INSPIRE].
B. Dutta, D. Kim, S. Liao, J.-C. Park, S. Shin and L.E. Strigari, Dark matter signals from timing spectra at neutrino experiments, Phys. Rev. Lett. 124 (2020) 121802 [arXiv:1906.10745] [INSPIRE].
MINERvA collaboration, Constraint of the MINERνA medium energy neutrino flux using neutrino-electron elastic scattering, Phys. Rev. D 100 (2019) 092001 [arXiv:1906.00111] [INSPIRE].
C.M. Marshall, K.S. McFarland and C. Wilkinson, Neutrino-electron elastic scattering for flux determination at the DUNE oscillation experiment, Phys. Rev. D 101 (2020) 032002 [arXiv:1910.10996] [INSPIRE].
TEXONO collaboration, Measurement of \( \overline{\nu} \)e-electron scattering cross-section with a CsI(Tl) scintillating crystal array at the Kuo-Sheng nuclear power reactor, Phys. Rev. D 81 (2010) 072001 [arXiv:0911.1597] [INSPIRE].
A.G. Beda et al., Gemma experiment: the results of neutrino magnetic moment search, Phys. Part. Nucl. Lett. 10 (2013) 139.
P. Ballett, M. Hostert, S. Pascoli, Y.F. Perez-Gonzalez, Z. Tabrizi and R. Zukanovich Funchal, Z′s in neutrino scattering at DUNE, Phys. Rev. D 100 (2019) 055012 [arXiv:1902.08579] [INSPIRE].
XENON collaboration, Excess electronic recoil events in XENON1T, Phys. Rev. D 102 (2020) 072004 [arXiv:2006.09721] [INSPIRE].
Particle Data Group collaboration, Review of particle physics, PTEP 2020 (2020) 083C01 [INSPIRE].
J. Engel, Nuclear form-factors for the scattering of weakly interacting massive particles, Phys. Lett. B 264 (1991) 114 [INSPIRE].
J.D. Lewin and P.F. Smith, Review of mathematics, numerical factors, and corrections for dark matter experiments based on elastic nuclear recoil, Astropart. Phys. 6 (1996) 87 [INSPIRE].
C. Giunti and A. Studenikin, Neutrino electromagnetic interactions: a window to new physics, Rev. Mod. Phys. 87 (2015) 531 [arXiv:1403.6344] [INSPIRE].
C. Giunti, K.A. Kouzakov, Y.-F. Li, A.V. Lokhov, A.I. Studenikin and S. Zhou, Electromagnetic neutrinos in laboratory experiments and astrophysics, Annalen Phys. 528 (2016) 198 [arXiv:1506.05387] [INSPIRE].
B. Kayser, Majorana neutrinos and their electromagnetic properties, Phys. Rev. D 26 (1982) 1662 [INSPIRE].
N.F. Bell, V. Cirigliano, M.J. Ramsey-Musolf, P. Vogel and M.B. Wise, How magnetic is the Dirac neutrino?, Phys. Rev. Lett. 95 (2005) 151802 [hep-ph/0504134] [INSPIRE].
N.F. Bell, M. Gorchtein, M.J. Ramsey-Musolf, P. Vogel and P. Wang, Model independent bounds on magnetic moments of Majorana neutrinos, Phys. Lett. B 642 (2006) 377 [hep-ph/0606248] [INSPIRE].
J.M. Butterworth, M. Chala, C. Englert, M. Spannowsky and A. Titov, Higgs phenomenology as a probe of sterile neutrinos, Phys. Rev. D 100 (2019) 115019 [arXiv:1909.04665] [INSPIRE].
M. Chala and A. Titov, One-loop matching in the SMEFT extended with a sterile neutrino, JHEP 05 (2020) 139 [arXiv:2001.07732] [INSPIRE].
K.S. Babu and R.R. Volkas, Bounds on minicharged neutrinos in the minimal Standard Model, Phys. Rev. D 46 (1992) R2764 [hep-ph/9208260] [INSPIRE].
J.F. Beacom and P. Vogel, Neutrino magnetic moments, flavor mixing, and the Super-Kamiokande solar data, Phys. Rev. Lett. 83 (1999) 5222 [hep-ph/9907383] [INSPIRE].
Borexino collaboration, Limiting neutrino magnetic moments with Borexino phase-II solar neutrino data, Phys. Rev. D 96 (2017) 091103 [arXiv:1707.09355] [INSPIRE].
LSND collaboration, Measurement of electron-neutrino-electron elastic scattering, Phys. Rev. D 63 (2001) 112001 [hep-ex/0101039] [INSPIRE].
J.M. Alarcon, J. Martin Camalich and J.A. Oller, The chiral representation of the πN scattering amplitude and the pion-nucleon sigma term, Phys. Rev. D 85 (2012) 051503 [arXiv:1110.3797] [INSPIRE].
J.M. Alarcon, L.S. Geng, J. Martin Camalich and J.A. Oller, The strangeness content of the nucleon from effective field theory and phenomenology, Phys. Lett. B 730 (2014) 342 [arXiv:1209.2870] [INSPIRE].
M. Cirelli, E. Del Nobile and P. Panci, Tools for model-independent bounds in direct dark matter searches, JCAP 10 (2013) 019 [arXiv:1307.5955] [INSPIRE].
R.J. Hill and M.P. Solon, Standard Model anatomy of WIMP dark matter direct detection II: QCD analysis and hadronic matrix elements, Phys. Rev. D 91 (2015) 043505 [arXiv:1409.8290] [INSPIRE].
S. Holland, D. Groom, N. Palaio, R. Stover and M. Wei, Fully depleted, back-illuminated charge-coupled devices fabricated on high-resistivity silicon, IEEE Trans. Electron Devices 50 (2003) 225.
D. Rodrigues et al., Absolute measurement of the Fano factor using a Skipper-CCD, Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A 1010 (2021) 165511 [arXiv:2004.11499] [INSPIRE].
G. Fernandez-Moroni, P.A.N. Machado, I. Martinez-Soler, Y.F. Perez-Gonzalez, D. Rodrigues and S. Rosauro-Alcaraz, The physics potential of a reactor neutrino experiment with Skipper CCDs: measuring the weak mixing angle, JHEP 03 (2021) 186 [arXiv:2009.10741] [INSPIRE].
SENSEI collaboration, SENSEI: direct-detection results on sub-GeV dark matter from a new Skipper-CCD, Phys. Rev. Lett. 125 (2020) 171802 [arXiv:2004.11378] [INSPIRE].
DAMIC, DAMIC-M collaboration, Search for low-mass dark matter with the DAMIC experiment, in 16th Rencontres du Vietnam. Theory meeting experiment: particle astrophysics and cosmology, (2020) [arXiv:2003.09497] [INSPIRE].
Oscura webpage, https://astro.fnal.gov/science/dark-matter/oscura/, (2020).
vIOLETA collaboration, vIOLETA: neutrino interaction observation with a low energy threshold array, Zenodo, (2020).
vIOLETA collaboration, The vIOLETA collaboration website, https://www.violetaexperiment.com/.
A.E. Chavarria et al., Measurement of the ionization produced by sub-keV silicon nuclear recoils in a CCD dark matter detector, Phys. Rev. D 94 (2016) 082007 [arXiv:1608.00957] [INSPIRE].
G. Mention et al., The reactor antineutrino anomaly, Phys. Rev. D 83 (2011) 073006 [arXiv:1101.2755] [INSPIRE].
P. Huber, On the determination of anti-neutrino spectra from nuclear reactors, Phys. Rev. C 84 (2011) 024617 [Erratum ibid. 85 (2012) 029901] [arXiv:1106.0687] [INSPIRE].
P. Vogel and J. Engel, Neutrino electromagnetic form-factors, Phys. Rev. D 39 (1989) 3378 [INSPIRE].
Y. Sarkis, A. Aguilar-Arevalo and J.C. D’Olivo, Study of the ionization efficiency for nuclear recoils in pure crystals, Phys. Rev. D 101 (2020) 102001 [arXiv:2001.06503] [INSPIRE].
J. Lindhard, V. Nielsen, M. Scharff and P.V. Thomsen, Integral equations governing radiation effects, Mat. Fys. Medd. Dan. Vid. Selsk. 33 (1963) 1.
G. Fernandez-Moroni, K. Andersson, A. Botti, J. Estrada, D. Rodrigues and J. Tiffenberg, Charge-collection efficiency in back-illuminated charge-coupled devices, Phys. Rev. Applied 15 (2021) 064026 [arXiv:2007.04201] [INSPIRE].
P. Du, D. Egana-Ugrinovic, R. Essig and M. Sholapurkar, Sources of low-energy events in low-threshold dark-matter and neutrino detectors, Phys. Rev. X 12 (2022) 011009 [arXiv:2011.13939] [INSPIRE].
F. Chierchie et al., Smart-readout of the Skipper-CCD: achieving sub-electron noise levels in regions of interest, arXiv:2012.10414 [INSPIRE].
R. Essig, M. Fernandez-Serra, J. Mardon, A. Soto, T. Volansky and T.-T. Yu, Direct detection of sub-GeV dark matter with semiconductor targets, JHEP 05 (2016) 046 [arXiv:1509.01598] [INSPIRE].
C. Boehm, D.G. Cerdeno, M. Fairbairn, P.A.N. Machado and A.C. Vincent, Light new physics in XENON1T, Phys. Rev. D 102 (2020) 115013 [arXiv:2006.11250] [INSPIRE].
A.N. Khan and W. Rodejohann, New physics from COHERENT data with an improved quenching factor, Phys. Rev. D 100 (2019) 113003 [arXiv:1907.12444] [INSPIRE].
M. Lindner, F.S. Queiroz, W. Rodejohann and X.-J. Xu, Neutrino-electron scattering: general constraints on Z′ and dark photon models, JHEP 05 (2018) 098 [arXiv:1803.00060] [INSPIRE].
JUNO collaboration, JUNO physics and detector, arXiv:2104.02565 [INSPIRE].
G.F. Moroni et al., The Skipper CCD for low-energy threshold particle experiments above ground, arXiv:2107.00168 [INSPIRE].
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
ArXiv ePrint: 2108.07310
Rights and permissions
Open Access . This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits any use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
About this article
Cite this article
Fernandez-Moroni, G., Harnik, R., Machado, P.A.N. et al. The physics potential of a reactor neutrino experiment with Skipper-CCDs: searching for new physics with light mediators. J. High Energ. Phys. 2022, 127 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP02(2022)127
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP02(2022)127