Scholarly Works, Center for Neutrino Physics

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Constraining neutrino-DM interactions with Milky Way dwarf spheroidals and supernova neutrinos
Heston, Sean; Horiuchi, Shunsaku; Shirai, Satoshi (American Physical Society, 2024-07-08)
We constrain the neutrino-dark matter cross section using properties of the dark matter density profiles of Milky Way dwarf spheroidal galaxies. The constraint arises from core-collapse supernova neutrinos scattering on dark matter as a form of energy injection, allowing the transformation of the dark matter density profile from a cusped profile to a flatter profile. We assume a standard cosmology of dark energy and cold, collisionless, and non-self-interacting dark matter. By requiring that the dark matter cores do not lose too much mass or overshoot constraints from stellar kinematics, we place an upper limit on the cross section of sigma nu- DM ( E nu = 15 MeV, m chi less than or similar to 130 GeV ) approximate to 3 .4 x 10 - 23 cm 2 and sigma nu- DM ( E nu = 15 MeV, m chi greater than or similar to 130 GeV ) approximate to 3 .2 x 10 -27 ( m chi 1 GeV ) 2 cm 2 , which is stronger than previous bounds for these energies. Consideration of baryonic feedback or host galaxy effects on the dark matter profile can strengthen this constraint.
Probing the sterile neutrino dipole portal with SN1987A and low-energy supernovae
Chauhan, Garv; Horiuchi, Shunsaku; Huber, Patrick; Shoemaker, Ian M. (American Physical Society, 2024-07-09)
Beyond the Standard Model electromagnetic properties of neutrinos may lead to copious production of sterile neutrinos in the hot and dense core of a core-collapse supernova. In this work, we focus on the active-sterile transition magnetic moment portal for heavy sterile neutrinos. Firstly, we revisit the SN1987A cooling bounds for dipole portal using the integrated luminosity method, which yields more reliable results (especially in the trapping regime) compared to the previously explored via emissivity loss, also known as the Raffelt criterion. Secondly, we obtain strong bounds on the dipole coupling strength reaching as low as 10-11 GeV-1 from energy deposition, i.e., constrained from the observation of explosion energies of underluminous Type IIP supernovae. In addition, we find that sterile neutrino production from Primakoff upscattering off of a proton dominates over scattering off of an electron for low sterile neutrino masses.
Upper limits on the cosmic neutrino background from cosmic rays
Ciscar-Monsalvatje, Mar; Herrera, Gonzalo; Shoemaker, Ian M. (American Physical Society, 2024-09-23)
Extragalactic and galactic cosmic rays scatter with the cosmic neutrino background during propagation to Earth, yielding a flux of relic neutrinos boosted to larger energies. If an overdensity of relic neutrinos is present in galaxies, and neutrinos are massive enough, this flux might be detectable by high-energy neutrino experiments. For a lightest neutrino of mass m(nu)similar to 0.1 eV, we find an upper limit on the local relic neutrino overdensity of similar to 10(13) and an upper limit on the relic neutrino overdensity at TXS 0506+056 of similar to 10(10). Future experiments like GRAND or IceCube-Gen2 could improve these bounds by orders of magnitude.
Direct detection of light dark matter charged under a L μ - L τ symmetry
Figueroa, Pablo; Herrera, Gonzalo; Ochoa, Fredy (American Physical Society, 2024-11-18)
A possible extension of the Standard Model able to explain the recent measurement of the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon consists in adding a gauged U ( 1 ) L mu -L tau symmetry. If the dark matter particle is charged under this symmetry, then the kinetic mixing between the new gauge boson and the photon induces dark matter-electron interactions. We derive direct detection constraints on light dark matter charged under a U ( 1 ) L mu -L tau symmetry with electron recoil experiments and explore prospects with XLZD and OSCURA to close in the parameter space able to explain simultaneously the recent measurement on the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon and the observed relic density of dark matter. We further discuss the spin-dependent scattering contribution arising in this model, which was ignored previously in the literature.
Search for Fractionally Charged Particles with CUORE
Adams, D. Q.; Alduino, C.; Alfonso, K.; Avignone, F. T., III; Azzolini, O.; Bari, G.; Bellini, F.; Benato, G.; Beretta, M.; Biassoni, M.; Branca, A.; Brofferio, C.; Bucci, C.; Camilleri, J.; Caminata, A.; Campani, A.; Cao, J.; Capelli, S.; Capelli, C.; Cappelli, L.; Cardani, L.; Carniti, P.; Casali, N.; Celi, E.; Chiesa, D.; Clemenza, M.; Copello, S.; Cremonesi, O.; Creswick, R. J.; D'Addabbo, A.; Dafinei, I.; Del Corso, F.; Dell'Oro, S.; Di Domizio, S.; Di Lorenzo, S.; Dixon, T.; Dompe, V.; Fang, D. Q.; Fantini, G.; Faverzani, M.; Ferri, E.; Ferroni, F.; Fiorini, E.; Franceschi, M. A.; Freedman, S. J.; Fu, S. H.; Fujikawa, B. K.; Ghislandi, S.; Giachero, A.; Girola, M.; Gironi, L.; Giuliani, A.; Gorla, P.; Gotti, C.; Guillaumon, P. V.; Gutierrez, T. D.; Han, K.; Hansen, E. V.; Heeger, K. M.; Helis, D. L.; Huang, H. Z.; Keppel, G.; Kolomensky, Yu G.; Kowalski, R.; Liu, R.; Ma, L.; Ma, Y. G.; Marini, L.; Maruyama, R. H.; Mayer, D.; Mei, Y.; Moore, M. N.; Napolitano, T.; Nastasi, M.; Nones, C.; Norman, E. B.; Nucciotti, A.; Nutini, I.; O'Donnell, T.; Olmi, M.; Oregui, B. T.; Ouellet, J. L.; Pagan, S.; Pagliarone, C. E.; Pagnanini, L.; Pallavicini, M.; Pattavina, L.; Pavan, M.; Pessina, G.; Pettinacci, V.; Pira, C.; Pirro, S.; Pottebaum, E. G.; Pozzi, S.; Previtali, E.; Puiu, A.; Quitadamo, S.; Ressa, A.; Rosenfeld, C.; Schmidt, B.; Sharma, V.; Singh, V.; Sisti, M.; Speller, D.; Stark, P.; Surukuchi, P. T.; Taffarello, L.; Tomei, C.; Torres, A.; Torres, J. A.; Vetter, K. J.; Vignati, M.; Wagaarachchi, S. L.; Welliver, B.; Wilson, J.; Wilson, K.; Winslow, L. A.; Zimmermann, S.; Zucchelli, S. (American Physical Society, 2024-12-12)
The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) is a detector array comprised by 988 5 cm x 5 cm x 5 cm TeO2 crystals held below 20 mK, primarily searching for neutrinoless doublebeta decay in Te-130. Unprecedented in size among cryogenic calorimetric experiments, CUORE provides a promising setting for the study of exotic throughgoing particles. Using the first tonne year of CUORE's exposure, we perform a search for hypothesized fractionally charged particles (FCPs), which are well-motivated by various standard model extensions and would have suppressed interactions with matter. Across the searched range of charges e/24 - e/2 no excess of FCP candidate tracks is observed over background, setting leading limits on the underground FCP flux with charges e/24 - e/5 at 90% confidence level. Using the low background environment and segmented geometry of CUORE, we establish the sensitivity of tonne-scale subkelvin detectors to diverse signatures of new physics.
Heavy Neutral Leptons via Axionlike Particles at Neutrino Facilities
Abdullahi, Asli M.; de Gouvea, Andre; Dutta, Bhaskar; Shoemaker, Ian M.; Tabrizi, Zahra (American Physical Society, 2024-12-24)
Heavy neutral leptons (HNLs) are often among the hypothetical ingredients behind nonzero neutrino masses. If sufficiently light, they can be produced and detected in fixed-target-like experiments. We show that if the HNLs belong to a richer-but rather generic-dark sector, their production mechanism can deviate dramatically from expectations associated with the standard-model weak interactions. In more detail, we postulate that the dark sector contains an axionlike particle (ALP) that naturally decays into HNLs. Since ALPs mix with the pseudoscalar hadrons, the HNL flux might be predominantly associated with the production of neutral mesons (e.g., pi(0), eta) as opposed to charge hadrons (e.g., pi(+/-), K-+/-). In this case, the physics responsible for HNL production and decay are not directly related and experiments like DUNE might be sensitive to HNLs that are too weakly coupled to the standard model to be produced via weak interactions, as is generically the case of HNLs that play a direct role in the type-I seesaw mechanism.
Nucleon Decays into Light New Particles in Neutrino Detectors
Heeck, Julian; Shoemaker, Ian M. (American Physical Society, 2025-09-11)
Proton and neutron decays into light new particles X can drastically change the experimental signatures and benefit from the complementarity of large water-Cherenkov neutrino detectors such as Super- and Hyper-Kamiokande and tracking detectors such as JUNO and DUNE. The proton decays p → 𝓁⁺X and p → π⁺X with mX near phase-space closure lead to charged particles below the Cherenkov threshold, rendering them practically invisible in Super- and Hyper-Kamiokande but not in JUNO and DUNE, which are therefore uniquely positioned for these baryon-number-violating signatures despite their smaller size. As an additional signature, such nucleon decays in the Earth can produce a sizable flux of X particles in underground detectors.We present a simple model in which nucleons decay into sub-GeV sterile neutrinos that subsequently decay through active-sterile neutrino mixing, with a promisingly large number of events in Super-Kamiokande even in the seesaw-motivated parameter space.
A gravity-based mounting approach for large-scale cryogenic calorimeter arrays
Alfonso, Krystal; CUPID Collaboration (2025-09-02)
Cryogenic calorimeters are among the leading technologies for searching for rare events. The CUPID experiment is exploiting this technology to deploy a tonne-scale detector to search for neutrinoless double-beta decay of 100 Mo. The CUPID collaboration proposed an innovative approach to assembling cryogenic calorimeters in a stacked configuration, held in position solely by gravity. This gravity-based assembly method is unprecedented in the field of cryogenic calorimeters and offers several advantages, including relaxed mechanical tolerances and simplified construction. To assess and optimize its performance, we constructed a medium-scale prototype hosting 28 Li 2 MoO 4 crystals and 30 Ge light detectors, both operated as cryogenic calorimeters at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (Italy). Despite an unexpected excess of noise in the light detectors, the results of this test proved (i) a thermal stability better than ±0.5 mK at 10 mK, (ii) a good energy resolution of Li 2 MoO 4 cryogenic calorimeters, (6.6 ± 2.2) keV FWHM at 2615 keV, and (iii) a Li 2 MoO 4 light yield measured by the closest light detector of 0.36 keV/MeV, sufficient to guarantee the particle identification requested by CUPID.
Clarity through the neutrino fog: constraining new forces in dark matter detectors
Blanco-Mas, Pablo; Coloma, Pilar; Herrera, Gonzalo; Huber, Patrick; Kopp, Joachim; Shoemaker, Ian M.; Tabrizi, Zahra (2025-08-06)
The PandaX-4T and XENONnT experiments present indications of Coherent Elastic Neutrino Nucleus Scattering (CEνNS) from 8B solar neutrinos at 2.6σ and 2.7σ, respectively. This constitutes the first observation of the neutrino “floor” or “fog”, an irreducible background that future dark matter searches in terrestrial detectors will have to contend with. Here, we first discuss the contributions from neutrino–electron scattering and from the Migdal effect in the region of interest of these experiments, and we argue that they are non-negligible. Second, we make use of the recent PandaX-4T and XENONnT data to derive novel constraints on light scalar and vector mediators coupling to neutrinos and quarks. We demonstrate that these experiments already provide world-leading laboratory constraints on new light mediators in some regions of parameter space.
Sterile-active resonance: A global qualitative picture
Brettell, Mark; Martinez-Soler, Ivan; Minakata, Hisakazu (2025-04-01)
In the νSM extended by adding an eV-scale sterile state, the (3 + 1) model, the sterile-active level crossing entails the MSW resonance, here referred as the sterile-active (SA) resonance. In this paper, we construct an effective theory of SA resonance which involves only the sterile-active mixing angles and ∆ m 41 2 , thanks to the given environment of high matter potential which freezes the νSM oscillations. We give our first attempt at an analytic treatment of the effective theory to illuminate the global picture of the SA resonance at a glance. We formulate a perturbative framework in which the structure of “texture zeros” of the S matrix in the flavor space and the suppression by the small parameters sin θj4 (j = 1, 2, 3) allows us to reveal the flavor–event-type hierarchy of the resonance-effect strength in the probabilities. We have shown that the cascade events dominantly comes from the three paths through P(νe → νe), P( ν ¯ e → ν ¯ e ), and P( ν ¯ μ → ν ¯ τ ), and a three-component fit is suggested to disentangle the SA resonance generation mechanisms.
COHERENT: Latest Results and Future Prospects
Link, Jonathan M. (2024-10-31)
Demonstration of neutron identification in neutrino interactions in the MicroBooNE liquid argon time projection chamber
Abratenko, P.; Alterkait, O.; Aldana, D. A.; Arellano, L.; Asaadi, J.; Ashkenazi, A.; Balasubramanian, S.; Baller, B.; Barnard, A.; Barr, G.; Barrow, D.; Barrow, J.; Basque, V.; Bateman, J.; Rodrigues, O. B.; Berkman, S.; Bhanderi, A.; Bhat, A.; Bhattacharya, M.; Bishai, M.; Blake, A.; Bogart, B.; Bolton, T.; Book, J. Y.; Brunetti, M. B.; Camilleri, L.; Cao, Y.; Caratelli, D.; Cavanna, F.; Cerati, G.; Chappell, A.; Chen, Y.; Conrad, J. M.; Convery, M.; Cooper-Troendle, L.; Crespo-Anadón, J. I.; Cross, R.; Del Tutto, M.; Dennis, S. R.; Detje, P.; Diurba, R.; Djurcic, Z.; Dorrill, R.; Duffy, K.; Dytman, S.; Eberly, B.; Englezos, P.; Ereditato, A.; Evans, J. J.; Fine, R.; Foreman, W.; Fleming, B. T.; Franco, D.; Furmanski, A. P.; Gao, F.; Garcia-Gamez, D.; Gardiner, S.; Ge, G.; Gollapinni, S.; Gramellini, E.; Green, P.; Greenlee, H.; Gu, L.; Gu, W.; Guenette, R.; Guzowski, P.; Hagaman, L.; Handley, M. D.; Hen, O.; Hilgenberg, C.; Horton-Smith, G. A.; Imani, Z.; Irwin, B.; Ismail, M. S.; James, C.; Ji, X.; Jo, J. H.; Johnson, R. A.; Jwa, Y.-J.; Kalra, D.; Kamp, N.; Karagiorgi, G.; Ketchum, W.; Kirby, M.; Kobilarcik, T.; Kreslo, I.; Lane, N.; Li, J.-Y.; Li, Y.; Lin, K.; Littlejohn, B. R.; Liu, H.; Louis, W. C.; Luo, X.; Mariani, Camillo; Marsden, D.; Marshall, J.; Martinez, N.; Caicedo, D. A. M.; Martynenko, S.; Mastbaum, A.; Mawby, I.; McConkey, N.; Meddage, V.; Mendez, J.; Micallef, J.; Miller, K.; Mogan, A.; Mohayai, T.; Mooney, M.; Moor, A. F.; Moore, C. D.; Lepin, L. M.; Moudgalya, M. M.; Mulleriababu, S.; Naples, D.; Navrer-Agasson, A.; Nayak, N.; Nebot-Guinot, M.; Nguyen, C.; Nowak, J.; Oza, N.; Palamara, O.; Pallat, N.; Paolone, V.; Papadopoulou, A.; Papavassiliou, V.; Parkinson, H. B.; Pate, S. F.; Patel, N.; Pavlovic, Z.; Piasetzky, E.; Pletcher, K.; Pophale, I.; Qian, X.; Raaf, J. L.; Radeka, V.; Rafique, A.; Reggiani-Guzzo, M.; Ren, L.; Rochester, L.; Rondon, J. R.; Rosenberg, M.; Ross-Lonergan, M.; Safa, I.; Schmitz, D. W.; Schukraft, A.; Seligman, W.; Shaevitz, M. H.; Sharankova, R.; Shi, J.; Snider, E. L.; Soderberg, M.; Söldner-Rembold, S.; Spitz, J.; Stancari, M.; John, J. S.; Strauss, T.; Szelc, A. M.; Tang, W.; Taniuchi, N.; Terao, K.; Thorpe, C.; Torbunov, D.; Totani, D.; Toups, M.; Trettin, A.; Tsai, Y.-T.; Tyler, J.; Uchida, M. A.; Usher, T.; Viren, B.; Wang, J.; Weber, M.; Wei, H.; White, A. J.; Wolbers, S.; Wongjirad, T.; Wospakrik, M.; Wresilo, K.; Wu, W.; Yandel, E.; Yang, T.; Yates, L. E.; Yu, H. W.; Zeller, G. P.; Zennamo, J.; Zhang, C. (2024-10-14)
A significant challenge in measurements of neutrino oscillations is reconstructing the incoming neutrino energies. While modern fully-active tracking calorimeters such as liquid argon time projection chambers in principle allow the measurement of all final state particles above some detection threshold, undetected neutrons remain a considerable source of missing energy with little to no data constraining their production rates and kinematics. We present the first demonstration of tagging neutrino-induced neutrons in liquid argon time projection chambers using secondary protons emitted from neutron-argon interactions in the MicroBooNE detector. We describe the method developed to identify neutrino-induced neutrons and demonstrate its performance using neutrons produced in muon-neutrino charged current interactions. The method is validated using a small subset of MicroBooNE’s total dataset. The selection yields a sample with 60 % of selected tracks corresponding to neutron-induced secondary protons. At this purity, the integrated efficiency is 8.4% for neutrons that produce a detectable proton.
Scintillation light in SBND: simulation, reconstruction, and expected performance of the photon detection system
Mariani, Camillo (2024-10-10)
SBND is the near detector of the Short-Baseline Neutrino program at Fermilab. Its location near to the Booster Neutrino Beam source and relatively large mass will allow the study of neutrino interactions on argon with unprecedented statistics. This paper describes the expected performance of the SBND photon detection system, using a simulated sample of beam neutrinos and cosmogenic particles. Its design is a dual readout concept combining a system of 120 photomultiplier tubes, used for triggering, with a system of 192 X-ARAPUCA devices, located behind the anode wire planes. Furthermore, covering the cathode plane with highly-reflective panels coated with a wavelength-shifting compound recovers part of the light emitted towards the cathode, where no optical detectors exist. We show how this new design provides a high light yield and a more uniform detection efficiency, an excellent timing resolution and an independent 3D-position reconstruction using only the scintillation light. Finally, the whole reconstruction chain is applied to recover the temporal structure of the beam spill, which is resolved with a resolution on the order of nanoseconds.
Impact of the cosmic neutrino background on long-range force searches
Chauhan, Garv; Xu, Xun-Jie (2024-07-26)
Light bosons can mediate long-range forces. We show that light bosonic mediators interacting with a background medium, in particular, with the cosmic neutrino background (CνB), may induce medium-dependent masses which could effectively screen long-range forces from detection. This leads to profound implications for long-range force searches in e.g. the Eöt-Wash, MICROSCOPE, and lunar laser-ranging (LLR) experiments. For instance, we find that when the coupling of the mediator to neutrinos is above 3 × 10−10 or 5 × 10−13, bounds from LLR and experiments employing the Sun as an attractor, respectively, would be entirely eliminated. Larger values of the coupling can also substantially alleviate bounds from searches conducted at shorter distances.
A neutrino floor for the Migdal effect
Herrera, Gonzalo (2024-05-24)
Neutrino-nucleus scatterings in the detector could induce electron ionization signatures due to the Migdal effect. We derive prospects for a future detection of the Migdal effect via coherent elastic solar neutrino-nucleus scatterings in liquid xenon detectors, and discuss the irreducible background that it constitutes for the Migdal effect caused by light dark matter-nucleus scatterings. Furthermore, we explore the ionization signal induced by some neutrino electromagnetic and non-standard interactions on nuclei. In certain scenarios, we find a distinct peak on the ionization spectrum of xenon around 0.1 keV, in clear contrast to the Standard Model expectation.
Improving the performance of cryogenic calorimeters with nonlinear multivariate noise cancellation algorithms
Vetter, K. J.; Beretta, M.; Capelli, C.; Corso, F. D.; Hansen, E. V.; Huang, R. G.; Kolomensky, Yu. G.; Marini, L.; Nutini, I.; Singh, V.; Torres, A.; Welliver, B.; Zimmermann, S.; Zucchelli, S. (2024-03-08)
State-of-the-art physics experiments require high-resolution, low-noise, and low-threshold detectors to achieve competitive scientific results. However, experimental environments invariably introduce sources of noise, such as electrical interference or microphonics. The sources of this environmental noise can often be monitored by adding specially designed “auxiliary devices” (e.g. microphones, accelerometers, seismometers, magnetometers, and antennae). A model can then be constructed to predict the detector noise based on the auxiliary device information, which can then be subtracted from the true detector signal. Here, we present a multivariate noise cancellation algorithm which can be used in a variety of settings to improve the performance of detectors using multiple auxiliary devices. To validate this approach, we apply it to simulated data to remove noise due to electromagnetic interference and microphonic vibrations. We then employ the algorithm to a cryogenic light detector in the laboratory and show an improvement in the detector performance. Finally, we motivate the use of nonlinear terms to better model vibrational contributions to the noise in thermal detectors. We show a further improvement in the performance of a particular channel of the CUORE detector when using the nonlinear algorithm in combination with optimal filtering techniques.
Interference and oscillation in Nambu quantum mechanics
Minic, Djordje; Takeuchi, Tatsu; Tze, Chia Hsiung (American Physical Society, 2021-09-10)
Nambu quantum mechanics, proposed in [Phys. Lett. B 536, 305 (2002)PYLBAJ0370-269310.1016/S0370-2693(02)01865-8], is a deformation of canonical quantum mechanics in which only the time-evolution of the "phases"of energy eigenstates is modified. We discuss the effect this theory will have on oscillation phenomena, and place a bound on the deformation parameters utilizing the data on the atmospheric neutrino mixing angle θ23.
CHANDLER: A Technology for Surface-level Reactor Neutrino Detection
Link, Jonathan M. (2023-01-17)
The CHANDLER Antineutrino Detection System and Nuclear Reactor Monitoring
Link, Jonathan M. (2023-10-20)
Probing new physics at DUNE operating in a beam-dump mode
Brdar, Vedran; Dutta, Bhaskar; Jang, Wooyoung; Kim, Doojin; Shoemaker, Ian M.; Tabrizi, Zahra; Thompson, Adrian; Yu, Jaehoon (American Physical Society, 2023-03)
In this work we demonstrate that a future accelerator-based neutrino experiment such as DUNE can greatly increase its sensitivity to a variety of new physics scenarios by operating in a mode where the proton beam impinges on a beam dump. We consider two new physics scenarios, namely light dark matter and axionlike particles and show that by utilizing a dump mode at a DUNE-like experiment, unexplored new regions of parameter space can be probed with an exposure of only 3 months with half of its expected initial beam power. Specifically, targetless configuration of future high intensity neutrino experiments will probe the parameter space for thermal relic dark matter as well as the QCD axion. The strength of such a configuration in the context of new physics searches stems from the fact that the neutrino flux is significantly reduced compared to that of the target, resulting in much smaller backgrounds from neutrino interactions. We have verified this in detail by explicitly computing neutrino fluxes which we make publicly available in order to facilitate further studies with a targetless configuration.

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