English

Astrophysical constraints on non-standard coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2021-04-07 v2 High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Abstract

The exciting possibility of detecting supernova, solar, and atmospheric neutrinos with coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering detectors is within reach, opening up new avenues to probe New Physics. We explore the possibility of constraining non-standard coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering through astrophysical neutrinos. Sensitivity bounds on the mass and coupling of the new mediator are obtained by inspecting the modifications induced by the new interaction on the recoil rate observable in the upcoming RES-NOVA and DARWIN facilities. Under the assumption of optimal background tagging, the detection of neutrinos from a galactic supernova burst, or one-year exposure to solar and atmospheric neutrinos, will place the most stringent bounds for mediator couplings g105g \gtrsim 10^{-5} and mediator masses between 1 and 100 MeV. A similar, but slightly improved, potential to COHERENT will be provided for larger mediator masses. In particular, RES-NOVA and DARWIN may potentially provide one order of magnitude tighter constraints than XENON1T on the mediator coupling. Non-standard coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering may also force neutrinos to be trapped in the supernova core; this argument allows to probe the region of the parameter space with g104g \gtrsim 10^{-4}, which is currently excluded by other coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering facilities or other astrophysical and terrestrial constraints.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2010.14545,
  title  = {Astrophysical constraints on non-standard coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering},
  author = {Anna M. Suliga and Irene Tamborra},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2010.14545},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

20 pages, 12 figures. Discussion on the forecasted bounds extended, conclusions unchanged. Matches version accepted in Phys. Rev. D