Journal article
Sensitivity of nEXO to Xe 136 charged-current interactions: Background-free searches for solar neutrinos and fermionic dark matter
Physical review. D, v 112(10), 103010
Nov 2025
Abstract
<p>We study the sensitivity of nEXO to solar neutrino charged-current interactions, nu e + 136Xe -> 136Cs* + e-, as well as analogous interactions predicted by models of fermionic dark matter. Due to the recently observed low-lying isomeric states of 136Cs, these interactions will create a time-delayed coincident signal observable in the scintillation channel. Here we develop a detailed Monte Carlo simulation of scintillation emission, propagation, and detection in the nEXO detector to model these signals under different assumptions about the timing resolution of the photosensor readout. We show this correlated signal can be used to achieve background discrimination on the order of 10-9, enabling nEXO to make background-free measurements of solar neutrinos above the reaction threshold of 0.668 MeV. We project that nEXO could measure the flux of neutrinos from the carbon-nitrogen-oxygen cycle with a statistical uncertainty of 25%, thus contributing a novel and competitive measurement toward addressing the solar metallicity problem. Additionally, nEXO could measure the mean energy of the 7Be neutrinos with a precision of sigma <= 1.5 keV and could determine the survival probability of 7Be and pep solar nu e with precision comparable to the state of the art. These quantities are sensitive to the Sun's core temperature and to nonstandard neutrino interactions, respectively. Furthermore, the strong background suppression would allow nEXO to search for charged-current interactions of fermionic dark matter in the mass range m chi = 0.668-7 MeV with a sensitivity up to three orders of magnitude better than current limits.</p>
Metrics
5 Record Views
Details
- Title
- Sensitivity of nEXO to Xe 136 charged-current interactions: Background-free searches for solar neutrinos and fermionic dark matter
- Creators
- G. Richardson - SLAC National Accelerator LaboratoryB. G. Lenardo - SLAC National Accelerator LaboratoryM. Yu - SLAC National Accelerator LaboratoryD. Gallacher - McGill UniversityR. Saldanha - Pacific Northwest National LaboratoryP. Acharya - University of AlabamaS. Al Kharusi - Stanford UniversityA. Amy - Nantes UniversitéE. Angelico - Stanford UniversityA. Anker - SLAC National Accelerator LaboratoryI. J. Arnquist - Pacific Northwest National LaboratoryA. Atencio - Drexel UniversityJ. Bane - University of Massachusetts AmherstV. Belov - Kurchatov InstituteE. P. Bernard - Lawrence Livermore National LaboratoryT. Bhatta - University of KentuckyA. Bolotnikov - Brookhaven National LaboratoryJ. Breslin - Rensselaer Polytechnic InstituteP. A. Breur - SLAC National Accelerator LaboratoryJ. P. Brodsky - Lawrence Livermore National LaboratoryS. Bron - TRIUMFE. BrownT. Brunner - McGill UniversityB. Burnell - Drexel UniversityE. Caden - Laurentian UniversityG. F. Cao - Chinese Academy of SciencesL. Q. Cao - Chinese Academy of SciencesD. Cesmecioglu - University of Massachusetts AmherstD. ChernyakM. Chiu - Brookhaven National LaboratoryR. Collister - Carleton UniversityT. Daniels - University of North Carolina WilmingtonL. Darroch - Yale UniversityR. DeVoe - Stanford UniversityM. L. di Vacri - Pacific Northwest National LaboratoryM. J. Dolinski - Drexel UniversityB. Eckert - Drexel UniversityM. Elbeltagi - Carleton UniversityA. EmaraN. Fatemighomi - SnolabW. Fairbank - Colorado State UniversityB. T. Foust - Pacific Northwest National LaboratoryN. Gallice - Brookhaven National LaboratoryG. Giacomini - Brookhaven National LaboratoryW. Gillis - University of Massachusetts AmherstA. Gorham - Pacific Northwest National LaboratoryR. Gornea - Carleton UniversityK. Gracequist - Carleton UniversityG. Gratta - Stanford UniversityC. A. Hardy - Stanford UniversityS. C. Hedges - Lawrence Livermore National LaboratoryM. Heffner - Lawrence Livermore National LaboratoryE. Hein - Skyline CollegeJ. D. Holt - TRIUMFA. Iverson - Colorado State UniversityP. Kachru - University of Massachusetts AmherstA. Karelin - Kurchatov InstituteD. Keblbeck - Colorado School of MinesI. Kotov - Brookhaven National LaboratoryA. Kuchenkov - Kurchatov InstituteK. S. Kumar - University of Massachusetts AmherstA. Larson - University of South DakotaM. B. Latif - Drexel UniversityS. Lavoie - McGill UniversityK. G. Leach - Colorado School of MinesA. Lennarz - McMaster UniversityD. S. LeonardK. K. H. Leung - Montclair State UniversityH. Lewis - TRIUMFG. Li - Chinese Academy of SciencesX. Li - TRIUMFZ. Li - University of Hawaiʻi at MānoaC. Licciardi - University of WindsorR. Lindsay - University of the Western CapeR. MacLellan - University of KentuckyS. Majidi - McGill UniversityC. Malbrunot - TRIUMFM. Marquis - McMaster UniversityJ. Masbou - Nantes UniversitéM. Medina-Peregrina - University of California San DiegoS. Mngonyama - University of the Western CapeB. Mong - SLAC National Accelerator LaboratoryD. C. Moore - Yale UniversityX. E. Ngwadla - University of the Western CapeK. Ni - University of California San DiegoA. Nolan - University of Massachusetts AmherstS. C. Nowicki - McGill UniversityJ. C. Nzobadila OndzeA. Odian - SLAC National Accelerator LaboratoryJ. L. Orrell - Pacific Northwest National LaboratoryG. S. Ortega - Pacific Northwest National LaboratoryL. Pagani - Pacific Northwest National LaboratoryH. Peltz SmalleyA. Peña PerezA. Piepke - University of AlabamaA. Pocar - University of Massachusetts AmherstV. Radeka - Brookhaven National LaboratoryR. RaiH. Rasiwala - McGill UniversityD. Ray - McGill UniversitynEXO Collaboration
- Publication Details
- Physical review. D, v 112(10), 103010
- Publisher
- American Physical Society
- Number of pages
- 14
- Grant note
- US National Science Foundation: DE-SC0024666, DE-SC0024677 NSFNSERC: PHY-2111213 FRQNT: SAPPJ-2022-00021, CFI 39881 CFREF Arthur B. McDonald Canadian Astroparticle Physics Research Institute in Canada: 2019-NC-255821 CAS in China: IBS-R016-D1
G. R. was supported by a U.S. Department of Energy Science Graduate Student Research fellowship as part of Contract No. DE-SC0014664. This work was supported in part by Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) programs at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) , Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) , Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) , and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The authors gratefully acknowledge support for nEXO from the Office of Nuclear Physics within DOE's Office of Science under Grants/Contracts No. DE-AC02-76SF00515, No. DE-AC05-76RL01830, No. DE-AC52-07NA27344, No. DE-FG02-01ER41166, No. DE-FG02-93ER40789, No. DE-SC0012654, No. DE-SC0012704, No. DE-SC0014517, No. DE-SC0017970, No. DE-SC0020509, No. DE-SC0021383, No. DE-SC0021388, No. DE-SC002305,No. DE-SC0024666, and No. DE-SC0024677 and support by the US National Science Foundation Grants No. NSF PHY-2011948 and No. NSF PHY-2111213; from NSERC SAPPJ-2022-00021, CFI 39881, FRQNT 2019-NC-255821, and the CFREF Arthur B. McDonald Canadian Astroparticle Physics Research Institute in Canada; from IBS-R016-D1 in South Korea; and from CAS in China.
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Physics
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:001619177600002
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-105029051528
- Other Identifier
- 991022133043604721
InCites Highlights
Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:
- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- International collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Astronomy & Astrophysics
- Physics, Particles & Fields