13-15 May 2013
Union South
US/Central timezone

A Future Coherent Elastic Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering Experiment at Fermilab

14 May 2013, 16:25
20m
Varsity I - 2nd Level

Varsity I - 2nd Level

Accelerator-Based Neutrino Physics Parallel Accelerator-Based Neutrino Physics III

Speaker

Dr Robert Cooper (Indiana University)

Description

Low energy neutrinos (E $\lesssim$ 50~MeV) have a predicted, but unobserved, neutral-current coherent elastic scattering channel on nuclei. Coherent neutrino scattering are important in supernovae and can probe weak nuclear form factors at low $Q^2$. At these low energies, the coherent scattering cross section dominates, but it deposits very little energy and requires low detection thresholds ($\sim 30$~keV). Recent progress in direct WIMP dark matter searches has led to detector technologies capable of a first direct measurement of coherent neutrino scattering with accelerator neutrino sources. The CENNS collaboration is proposing an experiment to develop a 1-ton, single-phase, liquid argon detector to measure coherent neutrino scattering near the booster neutrino beam (BNB) at Fermilab. By placing the detector near the beam target in a far off-axis position, a flux of low energy neutrinos is produced with a similar energy spectrum as stopped pion sources. The required nearness of the detector introduces beam-correlated neutron backgrounds whose elastic scatters mimic neutrino scattering. The Indiana-built SciBath detector was recently deployed to the BNB to measure these background neutrons in a 2-month run. SciBath measured the flux of 10-200~MeV neutrons, and this measurement is an input into the design of a neutron shield for the CENNS experiment. In this talk, I will discuss the importance of coherent neutrino scattering, describe the SciBath detector, and highlight our measurement at the BNB.

Primary author

Dr Robert Cooper (Indiana University)

Presentation Materials