Feasibility of a directional solar neutrino measurement with the CYGNO/INITIUM experiment

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential of using the CYGNO/INITIUM detector technology for directional solar neutrino measurements, aiming to fill gaps in low-energy solar neutrino data and address the solar abundance problem.

Contribution

It assesses the feasibility of employing large-volume time projection chambers for low-threshold, high-precision directional solar neutrino detection, a novel application of this technology.

Findings

Potential to detect pp chain neutrinos with low energy threshold

Feasibility of measuring CNO cycle neutrinos with larger detectors

Addresses the solar abundance discrepancy

Abstract

Over the past five decades, solar neutrino research has been pivotal in driving significant scientific advancements, enriching our comprehension of both neutrino characteristics and solar processes. Despite numerous experiments dedicated to solar neutrino detection, a segment of the lower pp spectrum remains unexplored, while the precision of measurements from the CNO cycle remains insufficient to resolve the solar abundance problem determined by the discrepancy between the data gathered from helioseismology and the forecasts generated by stellar interior models for the Sun. The CYGNO/INITIUM experiment aims to deploy a large 30 m3 directional detector for rare event searches focusing on Dark Matter. Recently, in the CYGNUS collaboration, there has been consideration for employing these time projection chamber technology in solar neutrino directional detection trough neutrino-electron elastic scattering. This is due to their potential to conduct low-threshold, high-precision measurements with spectroscopic neutrino energy reconstruction on an event-by-event basis driven by the kinematic. However, so far, no experiments have been investigated on the feasibility of this measurement using actual detector performances and background levels. Such a detector already with a volume of O(10) m3 could perform an observation of solar neutrino from the pp chain with an unprecedented low threshold, while with larger volumes it could measure the CNO cycle eventually solving the solar metallicity problem.