Observation of a nuclear recoil peak at the 100 eV scale induced by neutron capture

Abstract

Coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering and low-mass Dark Matter detectors rely crucially on the understanding of their response to nuclear recoils. We report the first observation of a nuclear recoil peak at around 112 eV induced by neutron capture. The measurement was performed with a CaWO${}_4$ cryogenic detector from the NUCLEUS experiment exposed to a ${}^{252}$Cf source placed in a compact moderator. The measured spectrum is found in agreement with simulations and the expected peak structure from the single-$\gamma$ de-excitation of ${}^{183}$W is identified with 3 $\sigma$ significance. This result demonstrates a new method for precise, in-situ, and non-intrusive calibration of low-threshold experiments.

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Cited by in corpus (8)

• First Limits on Light Dark Matter Interactions in a Low Threshold Two Channel Athermal Phonon Detector from the TESSERACT Collaboration
• Observation of a low energy nuclear recoil peak in the neutron calibration data of the CRESST-III Experiment
• Low-energy spectrum of the BULLKID detector array operated on surface
• Sub-keV Electron Recoil Calibration for Macroscopic Cryogenic Calorimeters using a Novel X-ray Fluorescence Source
• A portable and high intensity 24 keV neutron source based on ${}^{124}$Sb-${}^9$Be photoneutrons and an iron filter
• Estimation of waveform deformation with the matched filter
• Prospect of the NUCLEUS Experiment at Chooz for Coherent Elastic Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering and New Physics Searches
• Novel coincidence detection technique for precision measurement of neutron-capture-induced nuclear recoils