English

Measuring the Low-Energy Weak Mixing Angle with Supernova Neutrinos

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2025-11-10 v2

Abstract

The weak mixing angle θW\theta_W is a fundamental parameter in the electroweak theory with a value running according to the energy scale, and its precision measurement in the low-energy regime is still ongoing. We propose a method to measure the low-energy sin2θW\sin{^2\theta_W} by taking advantage of Argo, a future ton-scale liquid argon dark matter detector, and the neutrino flux from a nearby core-collapse supernova (CCSN). We evaluate the expected precision of this measurement through the coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CEν\nuNS) channel. We show that Argo is potentially capable of achieving a few percent determination of sin2θW\sin{^2\theta_W}, at the momentum transfer of q20q \sim 20 MeV, in the observation of a CCSN within 3\sim 3 kpc from the Earth. Such a measurement is valuable for both the precision test of the electroweak theory and searching for new physics beyond the standard model in the neutrino sector.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2504.02447,
  title  = {Measuring the Low-Energy Weak Mixing Angle with Supernova Neutrinos},
  author = {Chun-Ming Yip and Xu-Run Huang and Ming-chung Chu and Qishan Liu},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2504.02447},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

20 pages, 5 figures, published version