COHERENT at the Spallation Neutron Source

Abstract

The Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory provides an intense, high-quality source of neutrinos from pion decay at rest. This source was recently used for the first measurements of coherent elastic neutrino–nucleus scattering (CEvNS) by the COHERENT Collaboration, which resulted in new constraints of physics beyond the Standard Model. The SNS neutrino source will enable further CEvNS measurements, exploration of inelastic neutrino–nucleus interactions of particular relevance for understanding supernova neutrinos, and searches for accelerator-produced sub-GeV dark matter. Taking advantage of this unique facility, COHERENT's suite of detectors in Neutrino Alley at the SNS is accumulating more data to address a broad physics program at the intersection of particle physics, nuclear physics, and astrophysics. This review describes COHERENT's first two CEvNS measurements, their interpretation, and the potential of a future physics program at the SNS. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Nuclear and Particle Science, Volume 73 is September 2023. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Low-energy physics in neutrino LArTPCs

“…An ideal neutrino source for such measurements is a pion decay-at-rest source [80], for which neutrinos of ν e , n m ¯, ν μ flavor have energies in the range up to ∼52 MeV with well-understood spectrum [81]. The Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory provides a high-power, pulsed instance of such a source; COHERENT has exploited this source for CEvNS measurements [82,83] and forthcoming measurements are expected for neutrino-induced neutron production on lead and iron targets [84]. Future inelastic NC and ν e CC measurements on argon will place direct constraints on cross-sections and on the distribution of interaction products for processes of interest.…”