Coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CE$\nu$NS) event rates for Ge, Zn and Si detector materials

TL;DR

This paper presents detailed nuclear physics calculations of CE$ u$NS event rates for Ge, Zn, and Si isotopes using the deformed shell-model, aiming to improve understanding of neutrino interactions relevant for upcoming experiments.

Contribution

It introduces realistic nuclear structure calculations for CE$ u$NS event rates using the deformed shell-model, focusing on isotopes relevant for current and future detectors.

Findings

Predicted event rates for Ge, Zn, and Si isotopes in CE$ u$NS.

Validation of the deformed shell-model against experimental nuclear data.

Insights into uncertainties of CE$ u$NS within and beyond the Standard Model.

Abstract

Realistic nuclear structure calculations are presented for the event rates due to coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CE$\nu$NS), assuming neutrinos from pion-decay at-rest, from nuclear reactors and from Earth's interior. We focus on the currently interesting Germanium isotopes, $^{70,73,76}$Ge, which constitute detector materials of the recently planned CE$\nu$NS experiments. We study in addition the potential use of $^{64,70}$Zn and $^{28}$Si isotopes as promising CE$\nu$NS detectors. From nuclear physics perspectives, recently, calculations have been carried out within the framework of the deformed shell-model (DSM), based on realistic nuclear forces, and assessed on the reproducibility of spectroscopic nuclear properties. The high confidence level acquired by their agreement with experimental results and by their comparison with other mostly phenomenological calculations encouraged the use of DSM to extract predictions for the CE$\nu$NS event rates of the above isotopes. Our detailed estimation of the nuclear physics aspects of the recently observed neutral current coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering may shed light on unravelling the still remaining uncertainties for the CE$\nu$NS process within and beyond the Standard Model.