Towards Coherent Neutrino Detection Using Low-Background Micropattern Gas Detectors

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential of low-background micropattern gas detectors, specifically Gas Electron Multipliers, for detecting low-energy neutrinos via coherent scattering, which could revolutionize neutrino physics and applications.

Contribution

It presents initial tests of radioclean MPGDs and discusses their sensitivity to faint nuclear recoil signals from neutrinos, advancing detector technology for this purpose.

Findings

First tests of radioclean MPGDs show promise for neutrino detection.

Assessment methods for sensitivity to low-energy nuclear recoils are discussed.

Industrial production of GEMs is underway to enable large-scale applications.

Abstract

The detection of low energy neutrinos ($<$ few tens of MeV) via coherent nuclear scattering remains a holy grail of sorts in neutrino physics. This uncontroversial mode of interaction is expected to profit from a sizeable increase in cross section proportional to neutron number squared in the target nucleus, an advantageous feature in view of the small probability of interaction via all other channels in this energy region. A coherent neutrino detector would open the door to many new applications, ranging from the study of fundamental neutrino properties to true "neutrino technology". Unfortunately, present-day radiation detectors of sufficiently large mass ($>$ 1 kg) are not sensitive to sub-keV nuclear recoils like those expected from this channel. The advent of Micropattern Gas Detectors (MPGDs), new technologies originally intended for use in High Energy Physics, may soon put an end to this impasse. We present first tests of MPGDs fabricated with radioclean materials and discuss the approach to assessing their sensitivity to these faint signals. Applications are reviewed, in particular their use as a safeguard against illegitimate operation of nuclear reactors. A first industrial mass production of Gas Electron Multipliers (GEMs) is succinctly described.