Proposal for Resonant Detection of Relic Massive Neutrinos

Abstract

We present a novel method for detecting the relic neutrino background that takes advantage of structured quantum degeneracy to amplify the drag force from neutrinos scattering off a detector. Developing this idea, we present a characterization of the present day relic neutrino distribution in an arbitrary frame, including the influence of neutrino mass and neutrino reheating by $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ annihilation. We present explicitly the neutrino velocity and de Broglie wavelength distributions for the case of an Earthbound observer. Considering that relic neutrinos could exhibit quantum liquid features at the present day temperature and density, we discuss the impact of neutrino fluid correlations on the possibility of resonant detection.

8 pages, 8 figures, to appear in European Physical Journal C

References in corpus (6)

• Five-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Data Processing, Sky Maps, and Basic Results
• Cosmology at Low Frequencies: The 21 cm Transition and the High-Redshift Universe
• Evidence for massive neutrinos from CMB and lensing observations
• Annual Modulation of Cosmic Relic Neutrinos
• Measuring Anisotropies in the Cosmic Neutrino Background
• Efficiently Extracting Energy from Cosmological Neutrinos

Cited by in corpus (4)

• A short survey of matter-antimatter evolution in the primordial universe
• Relic neutrinos: Antineutrinos of Primordial Nucleosynthesis
• Spectral features of non-equilibrium antineutrinos of primordial nucleosynthesis
• Quarks to Cosmos: Particles and Plasma in Cosmological evolution