Physics reach of a low threshold scintillating argon bubble chamber in coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering reactor experiments

TL;DR

This paper evaluates a low-threshold scintillating argon bubble chamber's potential to detect coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering from reactors, highlighting its sensitivity to fundamental physics parameters.

Contribution

It introduces a novel low-threshold argon bubble chamber design and assesses its physics reach for CE$ u$NS experiments at nuclear reactors.

Findings

Achieves world-leading sensitivity to weak mixing angle, neutrino magnetic moment, and light Z' boson.

Demonstrates feasibility with a 1-year exposure at existing reactor facilities.

Shows potential to become the premier detector technology for reactor-based CE$ u$NS studies.

Abstract

The physics reach of a low threshold (100 eV) scintillating argon bubble chamber sensitive to Coherent Elastic neutrino-Nucleus Scattering (CE$\nu$NS) from reactor neutrinos is studied. The sensitivity to the weak mixing angle, neutrino magnetic moment, and a light $Z'$ gauge boson mediator are analyzed. A Monte Carlo simulation of the backgrounds is performed to assess their contribution to the signal. The analysis shows that world-leading sensitivities are achieved with a one-year exposure for a 10 kg chamber at 3 m from a 1 MW$_{th}$ research reactor or a 100 kg chamber at 30 m from a 2000 MW$_{th}$ power reactor. Such a detector has the potential to become the leading technology to study CE$\nu$NS using nuclear reactors.