Exploring coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering using reactor electron antineutrinos in the NEON experiment

Abstract

Neutrino Elastic scattering Observation with NaI (NEON) is an experiment designed to detect neutrino-nucleus coherent scattering using reactor electron antineutrinos. NEON is based on an array of six NaI(Tl) crystals with a total mass of 13.3 kg, located at the tendon gallery that is 24 m away from a reactor core with a thermal power of 2.8 GW in the Hanbit nuclear power complex. The installation of the NEON detector was completed in December 2020, and since May 2021, the detector has been acquiring data at full reactor power. This paper describes the design of the NEON detector, including the shielding arrangement, configuration of the NaI(Tl) crystals, and associated operation systems. The initial performance and associated sensitivity of the experiment are presented.

A view of coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering

“…-The CEνNS era started with the first measurement of such a process by the COHERENT experiment in 2017 [4], 44 years after its theoretical prediction in 1973 [1]. Since then there has been great interest in this field, with many experiments already operating or planned [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] that will provide complementary information. The aim is to observe CEνNS in different nuclei, confirming the theoretical prediction, and to obtain, from the data, information on the radius of the neutron distribution of the nucleus, on the weak mixing angle, and on new neutrino interactions.…”

“…Other experiments (CONUS [8] and CON-NIE [9]) have been able to obtain upper limits on CEνNS, which are compatible with the SM prediction, and are still working towards their first observation. Several other CEνNS experiments are planned or under construction: new COHERENT detectors [10], MINER [11], NEON [12], NUCLEUS [13], RED-100 [14], Ricochet [15], a project 34001-p1 at the European Spallation Source [16], and others [17]. Therefore, we expect many new experimental results in the next years, which will bring very interesting information on nuclear physics, weak neutral-current neutrino interactions and BSM physics.…”

New reactor data improves robustness of neutrino mass ordering determination

“…This leads to a currently allowed range of mediator masses between 3 MeV < ∼ M Z < ∼ 50 MeV for which large NSI of a comparable size to the weak interaction is still viable. This region can be probed by measuring CEvNS with a very low threshold detector at a reactor neutrino experiment [27], a measurement a number of experiments are working on [40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53]. In this paper we will mostly remedy the deficiency of unprobed LMA-Dark parameter space by analyzing the latest data from the Dresden-II experiment [52], the first experiment that has evidence for CEvNS with reactor neutrinos, in the context of this degeneracy.…”