Draft:NUCLEUS

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Draft:NUCLEUS

NUCLEUS is a particle physics experiment at the Chooz Nuclear Power Plant in France.[1] It aims to detect coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CEνNS) using cryogenic detectors with extremely low (sub-keV) energy thresholds.[2] NUCLEUS is the first experiment to deploy cryogenic calorimeters with eV-scale sensitivity at a nuclear reactor site for the detection of CEνNS.[3]

The experiment is part of a global effort to study CEνNS,[4][5]a process important for understanding neutrino properties, testing the Standard Model, and supporting research in related fields such as dark matter detection.[6]

Background and scientific aims

CEνNS is a process predicted by the Standard Model, in which a neutrino scatters coherently off an entire atomic nucleus, producing a small nuclear recoil.[6] First predicted in 1974[7], CEνNS was observed for the first time in 2017, when the COHERENT experiment reported the first detection at a spallation neutron source.[8] Detecting CEνNS using reactor neutrinos[9] is more challenging due to their low energies[10], which produce recoil signals on the order of tens to hundreds of electronvolts[11] due to the low energy of reactor antineutrinos. Achieving sensitivity to these small signals requires detectors with extremely low energy thresholds and careful suppression of backgrounds from cosmic rays and environmental radiation.[2]

NUCLEUS is designed to address this challenge by deploying ultra-sensitive cryogenic calorimeters just 72 meters[1] from a 4.25 GWth commercial reactor core at the Chooz nuclear power plant.[1] This proximity to the core provides a high flux of low-energy antineutrinos.

The experiment seeks to confirm CEνNS at reactor energies and open paths toward new physics searches, including neutrino magnetic moments, sterile neutrinos, and non-standard interactions.

The scientific objectives of NUCLEUS include:

  • Measuring the CEνNS cross-section at reactor neutrino energies, which are lower than those accessible at spallation sources;
  • Searching for deviations from Standard Model predictions, including possible signatures of non-standard neutrino interactions (NSI);
  • Advancing cryogenic detector technologies capable of operating at sub-keV thresholds for rare-event searches, including CEνNS and low-mass dark matter.[12]

Detector

The NUCLEUS detector employs gram-scale cryogenic calorimeters made from calcium tungstate (CaWO₄) and aluminium oxide (Al₂O₃) crystals,[2] operated at millikelvin temperatures.[13] The total target mass is 10 grams,[1] arranged in arrays of small scintillating crystals. These are read out by transition-edge sensors (TES).[14]

The detectors are designed to measure low-energy nuclear recoils and the aim is for thresholds below 100 electronvolts.[15] To reduce backgrounds from cosmic rays and environmental radiation, the experiment is located in a dedicated underground experimental hall[16] near the reactor core and employs extensive passive shielding and an active muon veto system.[17] A dilution refrigerator and pulse-tube cryocooler system maintains a stable operating temperature near 10 mK.[18]

The setup is housed in a dedicated cryostat[1] at the Chooz nuclear power plant and is designed to be scalable.

Timeline and Development

NUCLEUS builds on R&D from the CRESST and EDELWEISS collaborations. The experiment began conceptual development in 2016–2017[6] and has since advanced through detector prototyping and infrastructure preparation. Installation at the Chooz nuclear power plant was completed in 2023.[19]

In 2023, the collaboration reported a major milestone with the observation of a nuclear recoil peak at the 100 eV scale induced by neutron capture in the detector material.[20] This result demonstrates the detector's ability to operate at the energy threshold needed for CEνNS.[21][22]

The experiment is currently in commissioning[19], with data taking expected to begin in full operation phases in 2025.[19]

NUCLEUS is a collaboration involving 7 institutions across Europe: CEA, HEPHY, INFN, MPP, Sapienza, TUM and Tu Wien. [23]

It shares detector R&D efforts with projects such as CRESST, EDELWEISS, and the BULLKID R&D program, which explores kinetic inductance detectors (KIDs) as a future path to ultralow-threshold CEvNS and dark matter detection.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Angloher, G.; Ardellier-Desages, F.; Bento, A.; Canonica, L.; Erhart, A.; Ferreiro, N.; Friedl, M.; Ghete, V. M.; Hauff, D.; Kluck, H.; Langenkämper, A.; Lasserre, T.; Lhuillier, D.; Kinast, A.; Mancuso, M. (2019-12-17). "Exploring $$\hbox {CE}\nu \hbox {NS}$$ with NUCLEUS at the Chooz nuclear power plant". The European Physical Journal C. 79 (12): 1018. doi:10.1140/epjc/s10052-019-7454-4. hdl:10316/106923. ISSN 1434-6052.
  2. ^ a b c Strauss, R.; Rothe, J.; Angloher, G.; Bento, A.; Gütlein, A.; Hauff, D.; Kluck, H.; Mancuso, M.; Oberauer, L.; Petricca, F.; Pröbst, F.; Schieck, J.; Schönert, S.; Seidel, W.; Stodolsky, L. (2017-07-28). "Gram-scale cryogenic calorimeters for rare-event searches". Physical Review D. 96 (2) 022009. arXiv:1704.04317. Bibcode:2017PhRvD..96b2009S. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.96.022009.
  3. ^ Angloher, G.; et al. (2019). "Exploring with NUCLEUS at the Chooz nuclear power plant". The European Physical Journal C. 79 (12) 1018. doi:10.1140/epjc/s10052-019-7454-4. hdl:10316/106923.
  4. ^ "Magnificent CEvNS 2019". Indico Global (Indico). Archived from the original on 2025-07-10. Retrieved 2025-08-02.
  5. ^ cern (2023-07-05). "Magnificent CEvNS in Munich". CERN Courier. Retrieved 2025-08-03.
  6. ^ a b c Strauss, R.; Rothe, J.; Angloher, G.; Bento, A.; Gütlein, A.; Hauff, D.; Kluck, H.; Mancuso, M.; Oberauer, L.; Petricca, F.; Pröbst, F.; Schieck, J.; Schönert, S.; Seidel, W.; Stodolsky, L. (2017-07-31). "The $$\nu $$-cleus experiment: a gram-scale fiducial-volume cryogenic detector for the first detection of coherent neutrino–nucleus scattering". The European Physical Journal C. 77 (8): 506. Bibcode:2017EPJC...77..506S. doi:10.1140/epjc/s10052-017-5068-2. ISSN 1434-6052.
  7. ^ Freedman, Daniel Z. (1974-03-01). "Coherent effects of a weak neutral current". Physical Review D. 9 (5): 1389–1392. Bibcode:1974PhRvD...9.1389F. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.9.1389.
  8. ^ Akimov, D.; Albert, J. B.; An, P.; Awe, C.; Barbeau, P. S.; Becker, B.; Belov, V.; Brown, A.; Bolozdynya, A.; Cabrera-Palmer, B.; Cervantes, M.; Collar, J. I.; Cooper, R. J.; Cooper, R. L.; Cuesta, C. (2017-09-15). "Observation of coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering". Science. 357 (6356): 1123–1126. arXiv:1708.01294. Bibcode:2017Sci...357.1123C. doi:10.1126/science.aao0990. PMID 28775215.
  9. ^ Parada, Alexander; Garcia, G. Sanchez (2025-02-12). "Probing neutrino millicharges at the European Spallation Source". Physical Review D. 111 (3) 035012. arXiv:2409.10652. Bibcode:2025PhRvD.111c5012P. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.111.035012.
  10. ^ "INSPIRE". inspirehep.net. Retrieved 2025-08-03.
  11. ^ Bonifazi, Carla (2021-12-01). "Coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering". Journal of Physics: Conference Series. 2156 (1) 012004. Bibcode:2021JPhCS2156a2004B. doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2156/1/012004. ISSN 1742-6588.
  12. ^ Strauss, R.; Rothe, J.; Angloher, G.; Bento, A.; Gütlein, A.; Hauff, D.; Kluck, H.; Mancuso, M.; Oberauer, L.; Petricca, F.; Pröbst, F.; Schieck, J.; Schönert, S.; Seidel, W.; Stodolsky, L. (2017). "The ν -cleus experiment: A gram-scale fiducial-volume cryogenic detector for the first detection of coherent neutrino–nucleus scattering". The European Physical Journal C. 77 (8) 506. arXiv:1704.04320. Bibcode:2017EPJC...77..506S. doi:10.1140/epjc/s10052-017-5068-2.
  13. ^ Rothe, Johannes Felix Martin (2021). Low-Threshold Cryogenic Detectors for Low-Mass Dark Matter Search and Coherent Neutrino Scattering (Thesis). Technische Universität München.
  14. ^ Parno, D. S.; Poon, A. W. P.; Singh, V. (2024-06-24). "Experimental neutrino physics in a nuclear landscape". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences. 382 (2275) 20230122. arXiv:2310.06207. Bibcode:2024RSPTA.38230122P. doi:10.1098/rsta.2023.0122. PMC 11343210. PMID 38910396.
  15. ^ Angloher, G.; et al. (2019). "Exploring with NUCLEUS at the Chooz nuclear power plant". The European Physical Journal C. 79 (12) 1018. doi:10.1140/epjc/s10052-019-7454-4. hdl:10316/106923.
  16. ^ Aristizabal Sierra, Diego; Balantekin, A. Baha; Caratelli, David; Cogswell, Bernadette K.; Collar, Juan I.; Dahl, C. Eric; Dent, James; Dutta, Bhaskar; Engel, Jon; Estrada, Juan; Formaggio, Joseph; Gariazzo, Stefano; Han, Ran; Hedges, Samuel C.; Huber, Patrick (2019-10-16). "Proceedings of The Magnificent CEνNS Workshop 2018". Zenodo. doi:10.5281/zenodo.3489190.
  17. ^ Wagner, V.; et al. (2022). "Development of a compact muon veto for the Nucleus experiment". Journal of Instrumentation. 17 (5) T05020. arXiv:2202.03991. Bibcode:2022JInst..1705020W. doi:10.1088/1748-0221/17/05/T05020.
  18. ^ A. Wex, "Cryogenic infrastructure of the NUCLEUS experiment", poster, LTD20, (2023), https://nucleus-experiment.org/main-topic-1/sub1-1
  19. ^ a b c E. Bossio, "Status of the NUCLEUS experiment", Magnificent CEvNS workshop (2024), presentation, https://indico.cern.ch/event/1342813/contributions/5913874/​​​​​​​
  20. ^ Abele, H.; et al. (2023). "Observation of a Nuclear Recoil Peak at the 100 eV Scale Induced by Neutron Capture". Physical Review Letters. 130 (21) 211802. arXiv:2211.03631. Bibcode:2023PhRvL.130u1802A. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.211802. PMID 37295094.
  21. ^ L. Peters, "A new data analysis tool for NUCLEUS and first results from the commissioning phase", Magnificent CEvNS workshop (2024), presentation, https://indico.global/event/6083/contributions/50028/
  22. ^ Kaznacheeva, Margarita; Schäffner, Karoline (2024). "Scintillating low-temperature calorimeters for direct dark matter search". Journal of Advanced Instrumentation in Science. arXiv:2406.12887. doi:10.31526/jais.2024.514.
  23. ^ "Collaboration | NUCLEUS". nucleus-experiment.org. Retrieved 2025-08-03.

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