Determining the nuclear neutron distribution from Coherent Elastic neutrino-Nucleus Scattering: current results and future prospects

TL;DR

This paper explores how upcoming neutrino experiments can measure the neutron distribution in nuclei through coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering, building on recent measurements and providing new constraints.

Contribution

It assesses the potential of the European Spallation Source to determine neutron distribution radii and derives the first constraint from COHERENT data analysis.

Findings

ESS can effectively measure neutron distribution radii for various nuclei.

First constraint on neutron distribution radius from COHERENT data.

Potential for improved nuclear structure understanding.

Abstract

Coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CE$\nu$NS), a process recently measured for the first time at ORNL's Spallation Neutron Source, is directly sensitive to the weak form factor of the nucleus. The European Spallation Source (ESS), presently under construction, will generate the most intense pulsed neutrino flux suitable for the detection of CE$\nu$NS. In this paper we quantify its potential to determine the root mean square radius of the point-neutron distribution, for a variety of target nuclei and a suite of detectors. To put our results in context we also derive, for the first time, a constraint on this parameter from the analysis of the energy and timing data of the CsI detector at the COHERENT experiment.