Exploring CEvNS with NUCLEUS at the Chooz Nuclear Power Plant

Abstract

Coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CE$\nu$NS) offers a unique way to study neutrino properties and to search for new physics beyond the Standard Model. Nuclear reactors are promising sources to explore this process at low energies since they deliver large fluxes of (anti-)neutrinos with typical energies of a few MeV. In this paper, a new-generation experiment to study CE$\nu$NS is described. The NUCLEUS experiment will use cryogenic detectors which feature an unprecedentedly low energy threshold and a time response fast enough to be operated in above-ground conditions. Both sensitivity to low-energy nuclear recoils and a high event rate tolerance are stringent requirements to measure CE$\nu$NS of reactor antineutrinos. A new experimental site, denoted the Very-Near-Site (VNS) at the Chooz nuclear power plant in France is described. The VNS is located between the two 4.25 GW${}_{\mathrm{th}}$ reactor cores and matches the requirements of NUCLEUS. First results of on-site measurements of neutron and muon backgrounds, the expected dominant background contributions, are given. In this paper a preliminary experimental setup with dedicated active and passive background reduction techniques is presented. Furthermore, the feasibility to operate the NUCLEUS detectors in coincidence with an active muon-veto at shallow overburden is studied. The paper concludes with a sensitivity study pointing out the promising physics potential of NUCLEUS at the Chooz nuclear power plant.

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• Coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering: EFT analysis and nuclear responses
• Snowmass White Paper: Beyond the Standard Model effects on Neutrino Flavor
• First results from a search for coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CE$\nu$NS) at a reactor site
• First results of the nuGeN experiment on coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering
• Exploring coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering using reactor electron antineutrinos in the NEON experiment
• Probing Active-Sterile Neutrino Transition Magnetic Moments with Photon Emission from CE$\nu$NS
• Probing new neutral gauge bosons with CEvNS and neutrino-electron scattering
• Reactor neutrino applications and coherent elastic neutrino nucleus scattering
• New reactor data improves robustness of neutrino mass ordering determination
• Nuclear neutron radius and weak mixing angle measurements from latest COHERENT CsI and atomic parity violation Cs data
• The RED-100 experiment
• Final CONUS results on coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering at the Brokdorf reactor
• Fast neutron background characterization of the future Ricochet experiment at the ILL research nuclear reactor
• Transition Edge Sensors: Physics and Applications
• Implications of the first CONUS+ measurement of coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering
• Elastic and inelastic scattering of neutrinos and weakly interacting massive particles on nuclei
• Constraining Non-Standard Interactions with Coherent Elastic Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering at the European Spallation Source
• First measurements of remoTES cryogenic calorimeters: easy-to-fabricate particle detectors for a wide choice of target materials
• The XLZD Design Book: Towards the Next-Generation Liquid Xenon Observatory for Dark Matter and Neutrino Physics
• Observation of a nuclear recoil peak at the 100 eV scale induced by neutron capture
• Reactor neutrino liquid xenon coherent elastic scattering experiment
• Coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering with the $\nu$BDX-DRIFT directional detector at next generation neutrino facilities
• On the impact of the Migdal effect in reactor CE$\nu$NS experiments
• New constraints on coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering by the nuGeN experiment
• DoubleTES detectors to investigate the CRESST low energy background: results from above-ground prototypes
• Probing conventional and new physics at the ESS with coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering
• Nonfuel Antineutrino Contributions in the High Flux Isotope Reactor
• Light vector bosons and the weak mixing angle in the light of future germanium-based reactor CE$\nu$NS experiments
• CE$\nu$NS Experiment Proposal at CSNS
• Detailed nuclear structure calculations for coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering
• Detector development for the CRESST experiment
• Upgrade of NaI(Tl) crystal encapsulation for the NEON experiment
• Constraining Non-minimal Dark Sector Scenarios with the COHERENT Neutrino Scattering Data
• Development of an Organic Plastic Scintillator based Muon Veto Operating at Sub-Kelvin Temperatures for the NUCLEUS Experiment
• Performance of plastic scintillator modules for top veto tracker at Taishan Antineutrino Observatory
• Dark Matter-Electron Scattering Search Using Cryogenic Light Detectors
• Prototyping a High Purity Germanium cryogenic veto system for a bolometric detection experiment
• Hunting Nonstandard Neutrino Interactions and Leptoquarks in Dark Matter Experiments
• Sub-keV Electron Recoil Calibration for Macroscopic Cryogenic Calorimeters using a Novel X-ray Fluorescence Source
• Searches for CEνNS and Physics beyond the Standard Model using Skipper-CCDs at CONNIE
• How to measure the reactor neutrino flux below the inverse beta decay threshold with CE$\nu$NS
• Particle background characterization and prediction for the NUCLEUS reactor CE$\nu$NS experiment
• Measuring the Low-Energy Weak Mixing Angle with Supernova Neutrinos
• Impact of Geant4's Electromagnetic Physics Constructors on Accuracy and Performance of Simulations for Rare Event Searches
• Neutron capture-induced nuclear recoils as background for CE$\nu$NS~measurements at reactors
• Spontaneous damage annealing reactions as a possible source of low energy excess in semiconductor detectors
• Testing lepton non-unitarity with the next generation of Germanium-based CE$\nu$NS reactor experiments
• Prospect of the NUCLEUS Experiment at Chooz for Coherent Elastic Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering and New Physics Searches
• Development of a compact muon veto for the NUCLEUS experiment
• Calibration of nuclear recoils at the 100 eV scale using neutron capture