Constraints on Elastic Neutrino Nucleus Scattering in the Fully Coherent Regime from the CONUS Experiment

We report the best limit on coherent elastic scattering of electron antineutrinos emitted from a nuclear reactor off germanium nuclei. The measurement was performed with the CONUS detectors positioned at 17.1 m from the 3.9 GW(th) reactor core of the nuclear power plant in Brokdorf, Germany. The antineutrino energies of less than 10 MeV assure interactions in the fully coherent regime. The analyzed dataset includes 248.7 kg d with the reactor turned on and background data of 58.8 kg d with the reactor off. With a quenching parameter of k = 0.18 for germanium, we determined an upper limit on the number of neutrino events of 85 in the region of interest at 90% confidence level. This new CONUS dataset disfavors quenching parameters above k = 0.27, under the assumption of standard-model-like coherent scattering of the reactor antineutrinos.

Automated summary

In this study, the CONUS detectors at the Brokdorf nuclear power plant in Germany were used to measure the coherent elastic scattering of electron antineutrinos emitted from a reactor off germanium nuclei, determining an upper limit of 85 neutrino events at a 90% confidence level. The results disfavor quenching parameters above 0.27.