Coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">CE</mml:mi><mml:mi>ν</mml:mi><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">NS</mml:mi></mml:math>) event rates for Ge, Zn, and Si detector materials

Abstract

Realistic nuclear structure calculations are presented for the event rates due to coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering ($\mathrm{CE}\ensuremath{\nu}\mathrm{NS}$), assuming neutrinos from pion decay at rest, from nuclear reactors, and from Earth's interior. We focus on the currently interesting germanium isotopes, $^{70,73,76}\mathrm{Ge}$, which constitute detector materials of the recently planned $\mathrm{CE}\ensuremath{\nu}\mathrm{NS}$ experiments. We study in addition the potential use of $^{64,70}\mathrm{Zn}$ and $^{28}\mathrm{Si}$ isotopes as promising $\mathrm{CE}\ensuremath{\nu}\mathrm{NS}$ detectors. From nuclear physics perspectives, recently, calculations have been carried out within the framework of the deformed shell model (DSM), based on realistic nuclear forces, and assessed on the reproducibility of spectroscopic nuclear properties. The high confidence level acquired by their agreement with experimental results and by their comparison with other mostly phenomenological calculations encouraged the use of DSM to extract predictions for the $\mathrm{CE}\ensuremath{\nu}\mathrm{NS}$ event rates of the above isotopes. Our detailed estimation of the nuclear physics aspects of the recently observed neutral current coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering may shed light on unravelling the still remaining uncertainties for the $\mathrm{CE}\ensuremath{\nu}\mathrm{NS}$ process within and beyond the standard model.

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