Importance of the X-ray edge singularity for the detection of relic neutrinos in the PTOLEMY project

Abstract

Direct detection of relic neutrinos in a beta-decay experiment is an ambitious goal that has long been beyond the reach of available technology. One of the most challenging practical difficulties for such an experiment is managing a large amount of radioactive material without compromising the energy resolution required to distinguish useful events from the substantial beta-decay background. The PTOLEMY project offers an innovative solution to this problem by depositing radioactive material on graphene. While this approach is expected to address the main challenge, it introduces new issues due to the proximity of the beta decayers to a solid-state system. In this work, we focus on the effect of the shakeup of the graphene electron system caused by a beta-decay event. We calculate the distortion of the relic neutrino peaks resulting from this shakeup, analyze the impact of the distortion on the visibility of neutrino capture events, and discuss potential technological solutions to enhance the visibility of these events.

arXiv comment17 pages, 9 figures

References in corpus (18)

• Nine-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Final Maps and Results
• Dielectric function, screening, and plasmons in 2D graphene
• Electronic transport in graphene: A semi-classical approach including midgap states
• Ballistic transport exceeding 28 μm in CVD grown graphene
• Neutrino physics with the PTOLEMY project: active neutrino properties and the light sterile case
• Orthogonality catastrophe and Kondo effect in graphene
• Planck 2013 results. V. LFI calibration
• Development of a Relic Neutrino Detection Experiment at PTOLEMY: Princeton Tritium Observatory for Light, Early-Universe, Massive-Neutrino Yield
• Improved Measurement of the Positive Muon Lifetime and Determination of the Fermi Constant
• Heisenberg's uncertainty principle in the PTOLEMY project: a theory update
• Direct Detection of the Cosmic Neutrino Background Including Light Sterile Neutrinos
• Quantum Induced Broadening- A Challenge For Cosmic Neutrino Background Discovery
• Empirical capture cross sections for cosmic neutrino detection with ${}^{151}\mathbf{Sm}$ and ${}^{171}\mathbf{Tm}$
• Fermi gas response to non-adiabatic switching of external potential
• Plutonium-241 as a possible isotope for neutrino mass measurement and capture
• Can we use heavy nuclei to detect relic neutrinos?
• Microscopic calculation of the ${\beta }^{-}$ decays of ${}^{151}$Sm, ${}^{171}$Tm, and ${}^{210}$Pb with implications to detection of the cosmic neutrino background
• Measurement of the 171Tm beta spectrum

Cited by in corpus (1)

• The $\beta$-decay spectrum of Tritiated graphene: combining nuclear quantum mechanics with Density Functional Theory