Studies of Quantum-Mechanical Coherency Effects in Neutrino-Nucleus Elastic Scattering


Abstract in English

Neutrino-nucleus elastic scattering ($ u {rm A}_{el}$) provides a unique laboratory to study the quantum-mechanical (QM) coherency effects in electroweak interactions. The deviations of the cross-sections from those of completely coherent systems can be quantitatively characterized through a coherency parameter $alpha ( q^2 )$. The relations between $alpha$ and the underlying nuclear physics in terms of nuclear form factors are derived. The dependence of cross-section on $alpha ( q^2 )$ for the various neutrino sources is presented. The $alpha ( q^2 )$-values are evaluated from the measured data of the COHERENT CsI and Ar experiments. Complete coherency and decoherency conditions are excluded by the CsI data with $p {=} 0.004$ at $q^2 {=} 3.1 {times} 10^{3} ~ {rm MeV^2}$ and with $p {=} 0.016$ at $q^2 {=} 2.3 {times} 10^{3} ~ {rm MeV^2}$, respectively, verifying that both QM superpositions and nuclear many-body effects contribute to $ u {rm A}_{el}$ interactions.

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