A Comprehensive Effective Field Theory Framework for Coherent Elastic Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering

TL;DR

This paper develops a comprehensive effective field theory framework for coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering, bridging high-energy physics with low-energy observations to enable precise tests of the Standard Model and searches for new physics.

Contribution

It introduces a systematic EFT approach covering energy scales from UV to nuclear, including operator matching, power counting, and experimental data analysis for CEνNS.

Findings

Constraints on EFT operator scales derived from experimental data

Identification of nuclear response contributions up to dimension 8

Framework for analyzing neutrino non-standard interactions

Abstract

Coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CE$\nu$NS) stands out as a pivotal process for precision tests of the Standard Model electroweak sector, investigations of neutrino properties, and searches for new physics (NP). Recent experimental measurements by COHERENT, CONUS+, and ton-scale xenon detectors--including PandaX-4T and XENONnT--underscore the need for a systematic theoretical framework to bridge high-energy physics scenarios with low-energy observational data. In this work, we develop a comprehensive end-to-end effective field theory (EFT) framework for CE$\nu$NS, encompassing the complete energy scale hierarchy spanning the ultraviolet (UV) regime down to the nuclear sector. We consider the low-energy EFT (LEFT) operators up to dimension 8, incorporating their QCD renormalization group running effects, and employ the systematic spurion method to achieve the matching between these operators and the chiral Lagrangian. A full power counting analysis is performed, extending to nuclear response functions, which evaluates contributions from LEFT operators up to dimension 8 while accounting for the nucleon number enhancement effect intrinsic to CE$\nu$NS. Moreover, we match the relevant LEFT operators for CE$\nu$NS onto operators up to dimension 8 within the Standard Model EFT. By also providing their complete tree-level ultraviolet completions, this procedure establishes a consistent top-down theoretical workflow. Leveraging a broad suite of CE$\nu$NS experimental data, this framework enables a combined analysis to extract constraints on the scales of EFT operators and neutrino non-standard interaction parameters.