Laboratory tests for the cosmic neutrino background using beta-decaying nuclei

TL;DR

This paper explores how the cosmic neutrino background can suppress beta decay rates through Pauli blocking, potentially impacting neutrino detection methods.

Contribution

It introduces the effect of Pauli blocking by relic neutrinos on beta decay processes, highlighting its significance for neutrino background detection.

Findings

Pauli blocking can suppress beta decay rates by about 50%.

The effect is comparable to neutrino capture signals.

Implications for neutrino detection experiments.

Abstract

We point out that the Pauli blocking of neutrinos by cosmological relic neutrinos can be a significant effect. For zero-energy neutrinos, the standard parameters for the neutrino background temperature and density give a suppression of approximately 1/2. We show the effect this has on three-body beta decays. The size of the effect is of the same order as the recently suggested neutrino capture on beta-decaying nuclei.