Distinctive nuclear signatures of low-energy atmospheric neutrinos

Abstract

New probes of neutrino mixing are needed to advance precision studies. One promising direction is via the detection of low-energy atmospheric neutrinos (below a few hundred MeV), to which a variety of near-term experiments will have much-improved sensitivity. Here we focus on probing these neutrinos through distinctive nuclear signatures of exclusive neutrino-carbon interactions -- those that lead to detectable nuclear-decay signals with low backgrounds -- in both neutral-current and charged-current channels. The neutral-current signature is a line at 15.11 MeV and the charged-current signatures are two- or three-fold coincidences with delayed decays. We calculate the prospects for identifying such events in the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO), a large-scale liquid-scintillator detector. A five-year exposure would yield about 16 neutral-current events (all flavors) and about 16 charged-current events (mostly from ${\nu }_e+{\bar{\nu }}_e$, with some from ${\nu }_{\mu }+{\bar{\nu }}_{\mu }$), and thus roughly 25\% uncertainties on each of their rates. Our results show the potential of JUNO to make the first identified measurement of sub-100 MeV atmospheric neutrinos. They also are a step towards multi-detector studies of low-energy atmospheric neutrinos, with the goal of identifying additional distinctive nuclear signatures for carbon and other targets.

arXiv comment13 pages, 7 figures, 1 appendix. Minor changes, matches version published in Phys. Rev. D

References in corpus (84)

• Neutrino Physics with JUNO
• Energy spectra of gamma-rays, electrons and neutrinos produced at proton-proton interactions in the very high energy regime
• Implication of neutrino backgrounds on the reach of next generation dark matter direct detection experiments
• Collective Neutrino Oscillations
• IceCube-Gen2: The Window to the Extreme Universe
• Solar Modulation of Cosmic Rays
• The angular distribution of the reaction ${\bar{\nu }}_e+p\to e^{+}+n$
• GADZOOKS! Antineutrino Spectroscopy with Large Water Cerenkov Detectors
• First Measurement of the Muon Neutrino Charged Current Quasielastic Double Differential Cross Section
• DARWIN: towards the ultimate dark matter detector
• A new Generation of Standard Solar Models
• Flux of Atmospheric Neutrinos
• Final results of Borexino Phase-I on low energy solar neutrino spectroscopy
• Measurement of electron-neutrino electron elastic scattering
• A three-dimensional calculation of atmospheric neutrinos
• First evidence of pep solar neutrinos by direct detection in Borexino
• The Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background
• Solar Neutrinos: Status and Prospects
• The Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background is detectable in Super-Kamiokande
• Collective neutrino flavor conversion: Recent developments
• New Developments in Flavor Evolution of a Dense Neutrino Gas
• Neutrino Coherent Scattering Rates at Direct Dark Matter Detectors
• Measurement of Muon Neutrino Quasi-Elastic Scattering on Carbon
• Complementarity of dark matter detectors in light of the neutrino background
• The Present and Future Status of Heavy Neutral Leptons
• First Measurement of the Muon Anti-Neutrino Double-Differential Charged Current Quasi-Elastic Cross Section
• Grand Unified Neutrino Spectrum at Earth: Sources and Spectral Components
• Charged Current Neutrino Nucleus Interactions at Intermediate Energies
• Atmospheric neutrinos: LMA oscillations, Ue3 induced interference and CP-violation
• Search for extraterrestrial antineutrino sources with the KamLAND detector
• The FLUKA atmospheric neutrino flux calculation
• Measurements of Charged Current Reactions of ${\nu }_e$ on ${}^{12}C$
• Neutrino-Nucleus Reactions
• Sub-percent Precision Measurement of Neutrino Oscillation Parameters with JUNO
• Measurements of the reactions 12C + nu_e -> e- + 12N g.s. and 12C + nu_e -> e- + 12N
• Neutrino physics with multi-ton scale liquid xenon detectors
• Diffuse supernova neutrinos at underground laboratories
• Measuring the supernova unknowns at the next-generation neutrino telescopes through the diffuse neutrino background
• Determining the Neutrino Mass Ordering and Oscillation Parameters with KM3NeT/ORCA
• How high is the neutrino floor?
• Mass hierarchy, 2-3 mixing and CP-phase with Huge Atmospheric Neutrino Detectors
• Determination of neutrino incoming direction in the CHOOZ experiment and Supernova explosion location by scintillator detectors
• Stellar Collapse Diversity and the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background
• Muon decay in orbit: spectrum of high-energy electrons
• Supernova Neutrino Detection in Borexino
• Snowmass White Paper: Beyond the Standard Model effects on Neutrino Flavor
• Measurements of Charged Current Reactions of muon neutrinos on C12
• Dark matter astrophysical uncertainties and the neutrino floor
• First calculation of cosmic-ray muon spallation backgrounds for MeV astrophysical neutrino signals in Super-Kamiokande
• Getting the Most from Detection of Galactic Supernova Neutrinos in Future Large Liquid-Scintillator Detectors
• First measurement of radioactive isotope production through cosmic-ray muon spallation in Super-Kamiokande IV
• Can we overcome the neutrino floor at high masses?
• Neutrino-nucleus reactions on ^{12}C and ^{16}O
• Can Solar Neutrinos be a Serious Background in Direct Dark Matter Searches?
• Simulation of Atmospheric Muon and Neutrino Fluxes with CORSIKA
• Neutrino mass hierarchy extraction using atmospheric neutrinos in ice
• Search for astrophysical electron antineutrinos in Super-Kamiokande with 0.01wt% gadolinium-loaded water
• Sub-GeV Atmospheric Neutrinos and CP-Violation in DUNE
• Comparison of 3-Dimensional and 1-Dimensional Schemes in the calculation of Atmospheric Neutrinos
• Vertex and Energy Reconstruction in JUNO with Machine Learning Methods
• Limits on astrophysical antineutrinos with the KamLAND experiment
• Neutrino induced transitions between the ground states of the A=12 triad
• Impact of binary interactions on the diffuse supernova neutrino background
• Tagging Spallation Backgrounds with Showers in Water-Cherenkov Detectors
• Calculation of oscillation probabilities of atmospheric neutrinos using nuCraft
• Towards Probing the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background in All Flavors
• DUNE atmospheric neutrinos: Earth Tomography
• First Directional Measurement of sub-MeV Solar Neutrinos with Borexino
• Neutrino and antineutrino charge-exchange reactions on 12C
• Neutral-current background induced by atmospheric neutrinos at large liquid-scintillator detectors: I. model predictions
• Atmospheric neutrino flux from 3-dimensional simulation
• New oscillation and scattering constraints on the tau row matrix elements without assuming unitarity
• Simulation Software of the JUNO Experiment
• Galactic Cosmic-Ray Propagation in the Inner Heliosphere: Improved Force-Field Model
• Neutral-Current Atmospheric Neutrino Flux Measurement Using Neutrino-Proton Elastic Scattering in Super-Kamiokande
• Atmospheric neutrinos in a next-generation xenon dark matter experiment
• Non-Universal Stellar Initial Mass Functions: Large Uncertainties in Star Formation Rates at $z\approx 2-4$ and Other Astrophysical Probes
• Time variation of the atmospheric neutrino flux at dark matter detectors
• Neutral-current background induced by atmospheric neutrinos at large liquid-scintillator detectors: II. Methodology for in situ measurements
• Muon capture on light isotopes in Double Chooz
• Weak and Electromagnetic Nuclear Decay Signatures for Neutrino Reactions in SuperKamiokande
• Large Energy Singles at JUNO from Atmospheric Neutrinos and Dark Matter
• Capability of detecting low energy events in JUNO Central Detector
• Analytical description of CP violation in oscillations of atmospheric neutrinos traversing the Earth

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Prospects for Light Dark Matter Searches at Large-Volume Neutrino Detectors
• First Detailed Calculation of Atmospheric Neutrino Foregrounds to the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background in Super-Kamiokande
• CP-Violation with Neutrino Disappearance Alone
• New Signal of Atmospheric Tau Neutrino Appearance: Sub-GeV Neutral-Current Interactions in JUNO