Observation of a nuclear recoil peak at the 100 eV scale induced by neutron capture
Abstract
Coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering and low-mass Dark Matter detectors rely crucially on the understanding of their response to nuclear recoils. We report the first observation of a nuclear recoil peak at around 112 eV induced by neutron capture. The measurement was performed with a CaWO4 cryogenic detector from the NUCLEUS experiment exposed to a 252Cf source placed in a compact moderator. The measured spectrum is found in agreement with simulations and the expected peak structure from the single-γ de-excitation of 183W is identified with 3 σ significance. This result demonstrates a new method for precise, in-situ, and non-intrusive calibration of low-threshold experiments.
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