The XENONnT collaboration announced the first measurement of low-energy nuclear recoils from neutrinos produced in nuclear reactions inside the sun, particularly those involving the element boron!
Alongside hypothetical dark matter particles, neutrinos from the sun have long been predicted to be observable in detectors built to search for dark matter nuclear recoil signals when these detectors reach sufficient “exposure” and “sensitivity”. Exposure means how long we waited and how much material we have used to observe particles. Sensitivity is about how good we are at detecting the tiniest particles. Observing this feeble signal, with energies barely detectable in liquid xenon time projection chambers like XENONnT, requires excellent detector performance and sophisticated signal-to-background discrimination methods. The measurement confirms the understanding of the lowest-energy signals in XENONnT.
Congratulations to the Dr. Elena Aprile and the Xenon Team!
