Interplay between nonstandard and nuclear constraints in coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering experiments

TL;DR

This paper discusses how upcoming CEvNS experiments using different neutrino sources can improve constraints on standard nuclear parameters and new physics, emphasizing the importance of combining data for robust results.

Contribution

It demonstrates that combining CEvNS data from diverse neutrino energy sources enhances the ability to distinguish standard and nonstandard physics contributions.

Findings

Combined experiments improve constraints on neutron rms radius.

Different neutrino energy ranges help isolate nonstandard interactions.

Systematic error control is crucial for robust parameter constraints.

Abstract

New measurements of the coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CEvNS) are expected to be achieved in the near future by using two neutrino production channels with different energy distributions: the very low energy electron antineutrinos from reactor sources and the muon and electron neutrinos from spallation neutron sources (SNS) with a relatively higher energy. Although precise measurements of this reaction would allow an improved knowledge of standard and beyond the Standard Model physics, it is important to distinguish the different new contributions to the process. We illustrate this idea by constraining the average neutron root mean square (rms) radius of the scattering material, as a standard physics parameter, together with the nonstandard interactions (NSI) contribution as the new physics formalism. We show that the combination of experiments with different neutrino energy ranges could give place to more robust constraints on these parameters as long as the systematic errors are under control.