Neutrino physics with multi-ton scale liquid xenon detectors

We study the sensitivity of large-scale xenon detectors to low-energy solar neutrinos, to coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering and to neutrinoless double beta decay. As a concrete example, we consider the xenon part of the proposed DARWIN (Dark Matter WIMP Search with Noble Liquids) experiment. We perform detailed Monte Carlo simulations of the expected backgrounds, considering realistic energy resolutions and thresholds in the detector. In a low-energy window of 2-30 keV, where the sensitivity to solar pp and 7Be-neutrinos is highest, an integrated pp-neutrino rate of 5900 events can be reached in a fiducial mass of 14 tons of natural xenon, after 5 years of data. The pp-neutrino flux could thus be measured with a statistical uncertainty around 1%, reaching the precision of solar model predictions. These low-energy solar neutrinos will be the limiting background to the dark matter search channel for WIMP-nucleon cross sections below 2 × 10-48 cm2 and WIMP masses around 50 GeVṡc-2, for an assumed 99.5% rejection of electronic recoils due to elastic neutrino-electron scatters. Nuclear recoils from coherent scattering of solar neutrinos will limit the sensitivity to WIMP masses below 6 GeVṡc-2 to cross sections above 4 × 10-45cm2. DARWIN could reach a competitive half-life sensitivity of 5.6 × 1026 y to the neutrinoless double beta decay of 136Xe after 5 years of data, using 6 tons of natural xenon in the central detector region. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2014/01/044 Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich ZORA URL: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-101075 Accepted Version Originally published at: Baudis, L; Ferella, A; Kish, A; Manalaysay, A; Undagoitia, T Marrodán; Schumann, M (2014). Neutrino physics with multi-ton scale liquid xenon detectors. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2014(01):044. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2014/01/044 Prepared for submission to JCAP Neutrino physics with multi-ton scale liquid xenon detectors L. Baudis, A. Ferella, A. Kish, A. Manalaysay, T. Marrodán Undagoitia and M. Schumann aPhysik Institut, University of Zürich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057 Zürich, Switzerland bLaboratorio Nazionale del Gran Sasso, 67010 Assergi, Italy cMax-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany dAlbert Einstein Center for Fundamental Physics, Universität Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland eDepartment of Physics, University of California Davis, 95616 Davis, CA, USA E-mail: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] Abstract. We study the sensitivity of large-scale xenon detectors to low-energy solar neutrinos, to coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering and to neutrinoless double beta decay. As a concrete example, we consider the xenon part of the proposed DARWIN (Dark Matter WIMP Search with Noble Liquids) experiment. We perform detailed Monte Carlo simulations of the expected backgrounds, considering realistic energy resolutions and thresholds in the detector. In a low-energy window of 2–30 keV, where the sensitivity to solar pp and 7Be-neutrinos is highest, an integrated pp-neutrino rate of 5900 events can be reached in a fiducial mass of 14 tons of natural xenon, after 5 years of data. The pp-neutrino flux could thus be measured with a statistical uncertainty around 1%, reaching the precision of solar model predictions. These low-energy solar neutrinos will be the limiting background to the dark matter search channel for WIMP-nucleon cross sections below ∼2×10−48 cm2 and WIMP masses around 50GeV·c−2, for an assumed 99.5% rejection of electronic recoils due to elastic neutrino-electron scatters. Nuclear recoils from coherent scattering of solar neutrinos will limit the sensitivity to WIMP masses below ∼6GeV·c−2 to cross sections above ∼4×10−45cm2. DARWIN could reach a competitive half-life sensitivity of 5.6×1026 y to the neutrinoless double beta decay of 136Xe after 5 years of data, using 6 tons of natural xenon in the central detector region. We study the sensitivity of large-scale xenon detectors to low-energy solar neutrinos, to coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering and to neutrinoless double beta decay. As a concrete example, we consider the xenon part of the proposed DARWIN (Dark Matter WIMP Search with Noble Liquids) experiment. We perform detailed Monte Carlo simulations of the expected backgrounds, considering realistic energy resolutions and thresholds in the detector. In a low-energy window of 2–30 keV, where the sensitivity to solar pp and 7Be-neutrinos is highest, an integrated pp-neutrino rate of 5900 events can be reached in a fiducial mass of 14 tons of natural xenon, after 5 years of data. The pp-neutrino flux could thus be measured with a statistical uncertainty around 1%, reaching the precision of solar model predictions. These low-energy solar neutrinos will be the limiting background to the dark matter search channel for WIMP-nucleon cross sections below ∼2×10−48 cm2 and WIMP masses around 50GeV·c−2, for an assumed 99.5% rejection of electronic recoils due to elastic neutrino-electron scatters. Nuclear recoils from coherent scattering of solar neutrinos will limit the sensitivity to WIMP masses below ∼6GeV·c−2 to cross sections above ∼4×10−45cm2. DARWIN could reach a competitive half-life sensitivity of 5.6×1026 y to the neutrinoless double beta decay of 136Xe after 5 years of data, using 6 tons of natural xenon in the central detector region. Corresponding author. ar X iv :1 30 9. 70 24 v2 [ ph ys ic s. in sde t] 7 F eb 2 01 4