https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/s10050-023-01121-5
Regular Article - Experimental Physics
Can we use heavy nuclei to detect relic neutrinos?
Instituut-Lorentz, Leiden University, Niels Bohrweg 2, 2333 CA, Leiden, The Netherlands
a
mikulenko@lorentz.leidenuniv.nl
Received:
27
March
2023
Accepted:
31
August
2023
Published online:
20
September
2023
Recent analysis of the viability of solid state-based relic neutrino detectors has revealed the fundamental necessity for the use of heavy, 
, 
-decayers as neutrino targets. Of all heavy isotopes, 171Tm and 151Sm stand out for their sufficiently low decay energies, reasonable half-life times and stable daughter nuclei. However, the crucial bit of information, that is the soft neutrino capture cross-section is missing for both isotopes. The main reason for that is a particular type of -decay, which precludes a simple link between the isotope’s half-life time and the neutrino capture rate. In light of the necessity for a reliable estimate of the capture rate – unimpeded by potentially devastating theoretical uncertainties – prior to using the isotope in a full-scale experiment, we propose an experimental method to bypass this difficulty and obtain the capture cross-section of a soft neutrino by a given isotope from the isotope’s -spectrum.
© The Author(s) 2023
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