Speaker
Description
The ν-Angra experiment operates a surface-level, ton-scale water
Cherenkov detector at the Angra-II nuclear power plant. The successful
operation of the detector has provided a validated platform for reactor
antineutrino detection and non-intrusive reactor monitoring. Building on
this operational experience, we investigate the feasibility of a second
experimental phase based on a cryogenic calorimetric detector aimed at
the experimental observation of Coherent Elastic Neutrino–Nucleus
Scattering (CEvNS).
We present simulation studies of CEvNS event rates for reactor neutrinos
at short baselines, exploring different target materials and detector
masses, with emphasis on the strong scaling of the coherent cross
section with the neutron number of the target nucleus. A
physics-informed modeling of nuclear recoils, phonon production and
transport in cryogenic crystals is performed using Monte Carlo
techniques, including quenching, phonon propagation and detector
response. The simulation results define requirements that are compatible
with quantum sensor technologies, such as Transition Edge Sensors and
Kinetic Inductance Detectors, targeting sub-eV to few-eV energy thresholds.
These results indicate that a compact cryogenic detector, operated
within the existing ν-Angra infrastructure, can open a new window for
low-energy neutrino physics at a commercial nuclear reactor, with
sensitivity to Standard Model CEvNS and potential deviations at low
energies.