Prospects for precision CE$\nu$NS measurements with electron-capture neutrinos and lithium-based bolometers

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential for high-precision measurements of coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering using mono-energetic neutrinos from electron-capture decays and lithium-based bolometers, aiming to test neutrino anomalies.

Contribution

It proposes a novel experimental setup combining EC neutrino sources with lithium-based bolometers to achieve high-precision CEνNS measurements and test neutrino anomalies.

Findings

Achieves ~3% neutrino flux precision with 1 kg LiF detectors over 90 days.

Demonstrates feasibility of using EC neutrinos for CEνNS measurements.

Provides a method to test the gallium neutrino anomaly.

Abstract

We evaluate the feasibility of high-precision coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering measurements exploiting mono-energetic neutrinos produced by electron-capture (EC) decays of intense radioactive sources, such as $^{51}$Cr or $^{37}$Ar. To fully exploit the high neutrino flux achievable with EC sources, and accounting for the low energy of EC neutrinos, we evaluate the sensitivity of a compact array of bolometric detectors with absorbers based on light elements, such as lithium, oxygen and fluorine. With 1 kg of LiF detectors, source activities of $\sim10^{17}$ Bq, and assuming an energy threshold of 20 eV, we expect to achieve a $\sim 3\%$ precision on the determination of the neutrino flux with 90 days of measurement. Such a measurement would represent a test of the gallium neutrino anomaly, and could disentangle nuclear effects on gallium from the misevaluation of the EC source activity or short-baseline neutrino oscillations.