Anapole moment of neutrinos and radioactive sources near liquid xenon detectors

Abstract

We show that placing a radioactive source such as ${}^{51}$Cr near a liquid xenon detector may allow to detect the contribution induced by the anapole moment to neutrino-electron scattering in the Standard Model at the 1-2 $\sigma$ level. Although the anapole moment of neutrinos induces a scattering rate with the same spectral shape as the neutral and charged current contributions, exposures of $\sim$ 60 tonne $\times$ source run at XENONnT or XLZD may be enough to accumulate sufficient statistics for a detection. We also discuss a simple model where the anapole moment of neutrinos is enhanced or decreased with respect to the SM expectation, further demonstrating how a potential measurement of the anapole moment of neutrinos would allow to constrain new physics.