November 2023

Journal

First Measurement of Coherent Elastic Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering on Argon

By:
Akimov, D.; Albert, J.B.; An, P; Awe, Connor M; Barbeau, Phillip S; Becker, B.; Belov, V.; Blackston, Matthew A; Blokland, Lara S; Bolozdynya, A.; Cabrera-Palmer, Belkis ; Chen, N; Chernyak, D; Conley, Erin E; Cooper, Robert L; Daughhetee, Jacob D; Del valle coello, Maria; Detwiler, Jason A; Durand, M; Efremenko, Yuri V; Elliott, S.; Fabris, Lorenzo ; Febbraro, Michael T; Fox, Walter R; Galindo-Uribarri, Alfredo ; Green, Matthew P; Hansen, K; Heath, Matthew R; Hedges, Samuel C; Hughes, Max N; Johnson, T; Kaemingk, M; Kaufman, L.J.; Khromov, Alexander V; Konovalov, Alexey M; Kozlova, E; Kumpan, Alexander V; Li, Long ; Librande, J; Link, J.; Liu, J; Mann, K; Markoff, Diane M; McGoldrick, O; Moreno Cano, Hector A; Mueller, Paul E; Newby, Robert J; Parno, Diana M; Penttila, Seppo I; Pershey, Daniel S; Radford, David C; Rapp, Rebecca L; Ray, H.; Raybern, Justin L; Razuvaeva, O; Reyna, David E; Rich, Grayson C; Rudik, Dmitrii G; Runge, James A; Salvat, D.; Scholberg, Kate ; Shakirov, Aleksey ; Simakov, G; Sinev, Gleb ; Snow, William M; Sosnovtsev, V.; Suh, Benjamin D; Tayloe, R.; Tellez-Giron-Flores, Karla; Thornton, R; Tolstukhin, Ivan A; Vanderwerp, J.; Varner Jr, Robert L; Virtue, Clarence J; Visser, Gerard; Wiseman, C; Wongjirad, T; Yang, J; Yen, Yung-Ruey ; Yoo, Jong Hee ; Yu, Chang-Hong ; Zettlemoyer, Jacob C
Journal Name:
Physical Review Letters
Page Number:
12002
Volume:
126
Issue Number:
1
Publication Date:
November 9, 2023
View DOI Listing:
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.012002

Abstract

We report the first measurement of coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CEvNS) on argon using a liquid argon detector at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Spallation Neutron Source. Two independent analyses prefer CEvNS over the background-only null hypothesis with greater than 3σ significance. The measured cross section, averaged over the incident neutrino flux, is (2.2±0.7)×10−39  cm2—consistent with the standard model prediction. The neutron-number dependence of this result, together with that from our previous measurement on CsI, confirms the existence of the CEvNS process and provides improved constraints on nonstandard neutrino interactions.