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HUNTER: precision massive-neutrino search based on a laser cooled atomic source
Quantum Science and Technology ( IF 6.7 ) Pub Date : 2021-02-28 , DOI: 10.1088/2058-9565/abdb9b
C J Martoff 1 , F Granato 1 , V Palmaccio 1 , X Yu 1 , P F Smith 2 , E R Hudson 2 , P Hamilton 2 , C Schneider 2 , E Chang 2 , A Renshaw 3 , F Malatino 3 , P D Meyers 4 , B Lamichhane 5
Affiliation  

We describe a project that brings together researchers from atomic physics, nuclear physics and sub-atomic particle physics, to develop a high-precision laboratory-scale experiment able to search for very weakly coupled sterile neutrinos in the mass range extending from 5–10 keV/c 2 to several 100 keV/c 2. Observed neutrino flavor eigenstates are known to be quantum mixtures of at least three sub-eV/c 2 mass eigenstates. There is a strong theoretical belief that there may exist further neutrino mass eigenstates at higher mass levels, and which, if in the keV/c 2 mass range, might form all or part of the galactic dark matter. This has led to many searches for anomalous events in both astrophysical and particle physics experiments, and searches for distortions in beta decay spectra. The present experiment will utilize K-capture events in a population of 131Cs atoms suspended in vacuum by a magneto-optical trap (MOT). Using AMO and nuclear physics techniques, individual events will be fully reconstructed kinematically. Normally each event would be consistent with an emitted neutrino mass close to zero, but the existence of a sterile neutrino of keV/c 2 mass that mixes with the electron type neutrino produced in the decay would result in a separated population of events with non-zero reconstructed missing mass (up to the Q = 352 keV available energy of the reaction). Detailed calculations and simulations of all significant background processes have been made, in particular for scattering in the source itself, radiative K-capture, local radioactivity, cosmic ray muons, and knock-out of electrons by x-rays. A phase 1 of the experiment, under construction with funding from the W M Keck Foundation, has the potential to reach sterile neutrino mixing angles down to sin2θ ∼ 10−4. With further upgrades this technique could be progressively improved to eventually reach much lower coupling levels ∼10−10, in particular reaching the level needed to be consistent with galactic dark matter below the astrophysical x-ray limits.



中文翻译:

猎人:基于激光冷却原子源的精确大中微子搜索

我们描述了一个项目,该项目将来自原子物理学,核物理学和亚原子粒子物理学的研究人员召集在一起,以开发高精度实验室规模的实验,该实验能够搜索质量范围从5到10 keV的非常弱耦合的无菌中微子。 / c 2至几百keV / c 2。已知观察到的中微子风味本征态是至少三个亚eV / c 2质量本征态的量子混合物。有一个强烈的理论认为,在更高的质量水平下,可能还会存在更多的中微子本征态,如果处于keV / c 2质量范围,可能形成全部或部分银河暗物质。这导致在天体物理学和粒子物理实验中都对异常事件进行了许多搜索,并寻找了β衰变光谱中的畸变。本实验将利用由磁光阱(MOT)悬浮在真空中的131个Cs原子群体中的K捕获事件。使用AMO和核物理技术,将以运动学的方式完全重建单个事件。通常,每个事件都将与发出的中微子质量接近零相一致,但是存在无菌的中微子keV / c 2 与在衰变中产生的电子类型中微子混合的质量会导致事件群体的分离,这些事件的重构质量为非零(反应的可用能量高达Q = 352 keV)。已经对所有重要的背景过程进行了详细的计算和模拟,特别是对于源本身的散射,辐射K捕获,局部放射性,宇宙射线μ子以及X射线对电子的敲除。实验用来自凯克基金会资助的相位1,正在建设中,有可能达到无菌中微子混合电位角向下跌倒2 θ〜10 -4。随着进一步的升级,该技术可以逐步改进,最终达到低得多的耦合水平〜10 -10,特别是达到与天体X射线极限以下的银河暗物质相一致所需的水平。

更新日期:2021-02-28
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