Neutral-current neutrino-nucleus scattering off Xe isotopes

Abstract

Large liquid xenon detectors aiming for dark matter direct detection will soon become viable tools also for investigating neutrino physics. Information on the effects of nuclear structure in neutrino-nucleus scattering can be important in distinguishing neutrino backgrounds in such detectors. We perform calculations for differential and total cross sections of neutral-current neutrino scattering off the most abundant xenon isotopes. The nuclear structure calculations are made in the nuclear shell model for elastic scattering, and also in the quasiparticle random-phase approximation (QRPA) and microscopic quasiparticle phonon model (MQPM) for both elastic and inelastic scattering. Using suitable neutrino energy distributions, we compute estimates of total averaged cross sections for 8B solar neutrinos and supernova neutrinos.