The physics potential of a reactor neutrino experiment with Skipper CCDs: measuring the weak mixing angle

We analyze in detail the physics potential of an experiment like the one recently proposed by the vIOLETA collaboration: a kilogram-scale Skipper CCD detector deployed 12 meters away from a commercial nuclear reactor core. This experiment would be able to detect coherent elastic neutrino nucleus scattering from reactor neutrinos, capitalizing on the exceptionally low ionization energy threshold of Skipper CCDs. To estimate the physics reach, we elect the measurement of the weak mixing angle as a case study. We choose a realistic benchmark experimental setup and perform variations on this benchmark to understand the role of quenching factor and its systematic uncertainties, background rate and spectral shape, total exposure, and reactor antineutrino flux uncertainty. We take full advantage of the reactor flux measurement of the Daya Bay collaboration to perform a data driven analysis which is, up to a certain extent, independent of the theoretical un- certainties on the reactor antineutrino flux. We show that, under reasonable assumptions, this experimental setup may provide a competitive measurement of the weak mixing angle at few MeV scale with neutrino-nucleus scattering.

Mixed EW-QCD leading fermionic three-loop corrections at $$ \mathcal{O} $$(αsα2) to electroweak precision observables

Measurements of electroweak precision observables at future electron-position colliders, such as the CEPC, FCC-ee, and ILC, will be sensitive to physics at multi-TeV scales. To achieve this sensitivity, precise predictions for the Standard Model expectations of these observables are needed, including corrections at the three- and four-loop level. In this article, results are presented for the calculation of a subset of three-loop mixed electroweak-QCD corrections, stemming from diagrams with a gluon exchange and two closed fermion loops. The numerical impact of these corrections is illustrated for a number of applications: the prediction of the W-boson mass from the Fermi constant, the effective weak mixing angle, and the partial and total widths of the Z boson. Two alternative renormalization schemes for the top-quark mass are considered, on-shell and $$ \overline{\mathrm{MS}} $$ MS ¯ .

Determination of the Proton's Weak Charge and Its Constraints on the Standard Model

This article discusses some of the history of parity-violation experiments that culminated in the Qweak experiment, which provided the first determination of the proton's weak charge [Formula: see text]. The guiding principles necessary to the success of that experiment are outlined, followed by a brief description of the Qweak experiment. Several consistent methods used to determine [Formula: see text] from the asymmetry measured in the Qweak experiment are explained in detail. The weak mixing angle sin2θw determined from [Formula: see text] is compared with results from other experiments. A description of the procedure for using the [Formula: see text] result on the proton to set TeV-scale limits for new parity-violating semileptonic physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM) is presented. By also considering atomic parity-violation results on cesium, the article shows how this result can be generalized to set limits on BSM physics, which couples to any combination of valence quark flavors. Finally, the discovery space available to future weak-charge measurements is explored.

Coherent Elastic Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering as a Precision Test for the Standard Model and Beyond: The COHERENT Proposal Case

Several experimental proposals expect to confirm the recent measurement of the coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CEvNS). Motivated in particular by the next generation experiments of the COHERENT collaboration, we study their sensitivity to different tests of the Standard Model and beyond. We analyze the resolution that can be achieved by each future proposed detector in the measurement of the weak mixing angle; we also perform a similar analysis in the context of Nonstandard Interaction (NSI) and in the case of oscillations into a sterile neutrino state. We show that future perspectives are interesting for these types of new physics searches.