Operation of an archaeological lead PbWO${}_4$ crystal to search for neutrinos from astrophysical sources with a Transition Edge Sensor

Abstract

The experimental detection of the CE$\nu$NS allows the investigation of neutrinos and neutrino sources with all-flavor sensitivity. Given its large content in neutrons and stability, Pb is a very appealing choice as target element. The presence of the radioisotope ${}^{210}$Pb (T${}_{1/2}\sim$22 yrs) makes natural Pb unsuitable for low-background, low-energy event searches. This limitation can be overcome employing Pb of archaeological origin, where several half-lives of ${}^{210}$Pb have gone by. We present results of a cryogenic measurement of a 15g PbWO${}_4$ crystal, grown with archaeological Pb (older than $\sim$2000 yrs) that achieved a sub-keV nuclear recoil detection threshold. A ton-scale experiment employing such material, with a detection threshold for nuclear recoils of just 1 keV would probe the entire Milky Way for SuperNovae, with equal sensitivity for all neutrino flavors, allowing the study of the core of such exceptional events.

arXiv commentltd proceeding

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• Theory of Core-Collapse Supernovae
• Observation of Coherent Elastic Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering
• Physics of Core-Collapse Supernovae in Three Dimensions: a Sneak Preview
• Results on light dark matter particles with a low-threshold CRESST-II detector
• RES-NOVA: A new neutrino observatory based on archaeological lead
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Cited by in corpus (3)

• A new dark matter direct search based on archaeological Pb
• Neutrino NSI in archaeological Pb
• A rapid low-background assay of ${}^{210}$Pb in archaeological lead