Coherent neutrino scattering and the Migdal effect on the quenching factor

Abstract

Recent measurements of the germanium quenching factor deviate significantly from the predictions of the standard Lindhard model for nuclear recoil energies below a keV. This departure may be explained by the Migdal effect in neutron scattering on germanium. We show that the Migdal effect on the quenching factor can mimic the signal of a light Z' or light scalar mediator in coherent elastic neutrino nucleus scattering experiments with reactor antineutrinos. It is imperative that the quenching factor of nuclei with low recoil energy thresholds be precisely measured close to threshold to avoid such confusion. This will also help in experimental searches of light dark matter.

5 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. Version to appear in PRD

References in corpus (13)

• Observation of Coherent Elastic Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering
• Migdal Effect in Dark Matter Direct Detection Experiments
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• Constraints on elastic neutrino nucleus scattering in the fully coherent regime from the CONUS experiment
• Exploring low-energy neutrino physics with the Coherent Neutrino Nucleus Interaction Experiment (CONNIE)
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• Impact of form factor uncertainties on interpretations of coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering data
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• Search for light mediators in the low-energy data of the CONNIE reactor neutrino experiment
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• Atomic limits in the search for galactic dark matter

Cited by in corpus (14)

• Measurement of Coherent Elastic Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering from reactor antineutrinos
• Novel constraints on neutrino physics beyond the standard model from the CONUS experiment
• Precise predictions and new insights for atomic ionisation from the Migdal effect
• The Migdal Effect in Semiconductors for Dark Matter with Masses below $\sim$100 MeV
• The physics potential of a reactor neutrino experiment with Skipper-CCDs: Searching for new physics with light mediators
• Measuring the Migdal effect in semiconductors for dark matter detection
• Implications of the first evidence for coherent elastic scattering of reactor neutrinos
• On the impact of the Migdal effect in reactor CE$\nu$NS experiments
• How to measure the reactor neutrino flux below the inverse beta decay threshold with CE$\nu$NS
• EstrellaNueva: an open-source software to study the interactions and detection of neutrinos emitted by supernovae
• Comparison of the Migdal transition probabilities in electron-atom inelastic cross sections
• Bounds on new physics with data of the Dresden-II reactor experiment and COHERENT
• Phenomenological implications of the high-precision COHERENT germanium CE$\nu$NS data
• Observing the Migdal effect from nuclear recoils of neutral particles with liquid xenon and argon detectors