Coherent elastic neutrino–nucleus scattering (CEνNS) offers a unique way to study neutrino properties and to search for new physics beyond the Standard Model. Nuclear reactors are promising sources ...to explore this process at low energies since they deliver large fluxes of anti-neutrinos with typical energies of a few MeV. In this paper, a new-generation experiment to study CEνNS is described. The NUCLEUS experiment will use cryogenic detectors which feature an unprecedentedly low-energy threshold and a time response fast enough to be operated under above-ground conditions. Both sensitivity to low-energy nuclear recoils and a high event rate tolerance are stringent requirements to measuring CEνNS of reactor anti-neutrinos. A new experimental site, the Very-Near-Site (VNS), at the Chooz nuclear power plant in France is described. The VNS is located between the two 4.25 GWth reactor cores and matches the requirements of NUCLEUS. First results of on-site measurements of neutron and muon backgrounds, the expected dominant background contributions, are given. In this paper a preliminary experimental set-up with dedicated active and passive background reduction techniques and first background estimations are presented. Furthermore, the feasibility to operate the detectors in coincidence with an active muon veto at shallow overburden is studied. The paper concludes with a sensitivity study pointing out the physics potential of NUCLEUS at the Chooz nuclear power plant.
Aims. The EROS-2 project was designed to test the hypothesis that massive compact halo objects (the so-called "machos") could be a major component of the dark matter halo of the Milky Way galaxy. To ...this end, EROS- 2 monitored over 6.7 years 33\times10 similar to stars in the Magellanic clouds for microlensing events caused by such objects. Methods. In this work, we use only a subsample of 7\times10 similar to bright stars spread over 84\,\rm deg arrow up of the LMC and 9\,\rm deg arrow up of the SMC. The strategy of using only bright stars helps to discriminate against background events due to variable stars and allows a simple determination of the effects of source confusion (blending). The use of a large solid angle makes the survey relatively insensitive to effects that could make the optical depth strongly direction dependent. Results. Using this sample of bright stars, only one candidate event was found, whereas similar to 39 events would have been expected if the Halo were entirely populated by objects of mass M\sim0.4 similar to M_{\odot}. Combined with the results of EROS-1, this implies that the optical depth toward the Large Magellanic Cloud ( LMC) due to such lenses is \tau<0.36\times10 (95% CL), corresponding to a fraction of the halo mass of less than 8%. This optical depth is considerably less than that measured by the MACHO collaboration in the central region of the LMC. More generally, machos in the mass range 0.6\times10 contains as a subset _\odot<M<15 similar to M_{\odot} are ruled out as the primary occupants of the Milky Way Halo.
The NUCLEUS experiment aims at measuring the coherent elastic scattering of nuclear reactor antineutrinos off nuclei using cryogenic calorimeters. Operating at an overburden of 3 m.w.e., muon-induced ...backgrounds are expected to be dominant. It is therefore essential to develop an efficient muon veto, with a detection efficiency of more than 99 %. This will be realized in NUCLEUS through a compact cube assembly of plastic scintillator panels. In order to prevent a large unshielded area where the cryostat intersects the shielding arrangement without unnecessarily increasing the induced detector dead time, a novel concept has been investigated, featuring a plastic scintillator-based active muon veto operating inside the NUCLEUS cryostat at sub-Kelvin temperatures. The verification of the key physical aspects of this cryogenic muon veto detector led to the first reported measurements of organic plastic scintillators at sub-Kelvin temperatures. The functionality of the principal scintillation process of organic plastic scintillators at these temperatures has been confirmed. On the basis of these findings, a disk-shape plastic scintillator equipped with wavelength shifting fibers and a silicon photomultiplier to guide and detect the scintillation light has been developed. The NUCLEUS cryogenic muon veto will be the first of its kind to be operated at sub-Kelvin temperatures.
The NUCLEUS experiment aims for the detection of coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering at a nuclear power reactor with gram-scale, ultra-low-threshold cryogenic detectors. This technology ...leads to a miniaturization of neutrino detectors and allows to probe physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. A 0.5 g NUCLEUS prototype detector, operated above ground in 2017, reached an energy threshold for nuclear recoils of below 20 eV. This sensitivity is achieved with tungsten transition edge sensors which are operating at temperatures of 15 mK and are mainly sensitive to non-thermal phonons. These small recoil energies become accessible for the first time with this technology, which allows collecting large-statistics neutrino event samples with a moderate detector mass. A first-phase cryogenic detector array with a total mass of 10 g enables a 5-sigma observation of coherent scattering within several weeks. We identified a suitable experimental site at the Chooz Nuclear Power Plant and performed muon and neutron background measurements there. The operation of a NUCLEUS cryogenic detector array at such a site requires highly efficient background suppression. NUCLEUS plans to use an innovative technique consisting of separate cryogenic anticoincidence detectors against surface backgrounds and penetrating (gamma, neutron) radiation. We present first results from prototypes of these veto detectors and their operation in coincidence with a NUCLEUS target detector.
We address the phenomenology of light sterile neutrinos, with an emphasis on short-baseline neutrino oscillations. After reviewing the observed short-baseline neutrino oscillation anomalies, we ...discuss the global fit of the data and the current appearance-disappearance tension. We also review briefly the effects of light sterile neutrinos in β decay, neutrinoless double-β decay, and cosmology. Finally, we discuss future perspectives of the search for the effects of eV-scale sterile neutrinos.
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