Observation of coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering

Synopsis

Neutrinos are known to be difficult to detect simply due to their small interaction cross-section with matter. Often, neutrino studies use detectors whose mass measures in the tonnes. Coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CEνNS) is a process with a large interaction cross-section, and offers a promising approach to reducing neutrino detector sizes. Recent advances have made measurement of low-energy nuclear recoils resulting from CEνNS possible using a 14.6 kg sodium-doped CsI scintillator detector.

Paper:
D. Akimov et al, Science 357, 1123 (2017).
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/357/6356/1123.full