CE$\nu$NS Experiment Proposal at CSNS

Abstract

The detection and cross-section measurement of Coherent Elastic Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering (CE{\nu}NS) are vital for particle physics, astrophysics, and nuclear physics. Therefore, a new CE{\nu}NS detection experiment is proposed in China. Undoped CsI crystals, each coupled with two Photon Multiplier Tubes (PMTs), will be cooled down to 77K and placed at the China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS) to detect the CE{\nu}NS signals produced by neutrinos from stopped pion decays happening within the Tungsten target of CSNS. Owing to the extremely high light yield of pure CsI at 77K, even though it only has a neutrino flux 60\% weaker than the COHERENT experiment, the detectable signal event rate is still expected to be 0.074/day/kg (0.053/day/kg for COHERENT). Low radioactivity materials and devices will be used to construct the detector, and strong shielding will be applied to reduce the radioactive and neutron background. Dual-PMT readout should be able to reject PMT-related background, such as Cherenkov light and PMT dark noise. With all the strategies mentioned above, we hope to reach a 5.1{\sigma} signal detection significance within six months of data taking with a 12kg CsI. This presentation will discuss the experiment's design, as well as the estimation of the signal, various kinds of background, and expected signal sensitivity.