Measuring Changes in the Atmospheric Neutrino Rate Over Gigayear Timescales

Article
Report number	arXiv:2004.08394
Title	Measuring Changes in the Atmospheric Neutrino Rate Over Gigayear Timescales
Author(s)	Jordan, Johnathon R. (Michigan U.) ; Baum, Sebastian (Stanford U. ; Stockholm U., OKC) ; Stengel, Patrick (Stockholm U., OKC) ; Ferrari, Alfredo (CERN) ; Morone, Maria Cristina (Rome U., Tor Vergata ; INFN, Rome) ; Sala, Paola (INFN, Milan) ; Spitz, Joshua (Michigan U.)
Publication	2020-11-30
Imprint	2020-04-17
Number of pages	6
Note	Updated to match PRL version; 6 pages, 2 figures
In:	Phys. Rev. Lett. 125 (2020) 231802
DOI	10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.231802 (publication)
Subject category	physics.ins-det ; Detectors and Experimental Techniques ; hep-ex ; Particle Physics - Experiment ; astro-ph.IM ; Astrophysics and Astronomy ; astro-ph.HE ; Astrophysics and Astronomy ; astro-ph.GA ; Astrophysics and Astronomy ; hep-ph ; Particle Physics - Phenomenology
Abstract	Measuring the cosmic ray flux over timescales comparable to the age of the solar system, $\sim 4.5\,$Gyr, could provide a new window on the history of the Earth, the solar system, and even our galaxy. We present a technique to indirectly measure the rate of cosmic rays as a function of time using the imprints of atmospheric neutrinos in paleo-detectors, natural minerals which record damage tracks from nuclear recoils. Minerals commonly found on Earth are $\lesssim 1\,$Gyr old, providing the ability to look back across cosmic ray history on timescales of the same order as the age of the solar system. Given a collection of differently aged samples dated with reasonable accuracy, this technique is particularly well-suited to measuring historical changes in the cosmic ray flux at Earth and is broadly applicable in astrophysics and geophysics.
Copyright/License	publication: © 2020-2024 authors (License: CC-BY-4.0), sponsored by SCOAP³ preprint: (License: arXiv nonexclusive-distrib 1.0)

$Differential distribution of the number of recoils per unit target mass and unit time ($n$) with respect to the recoil track length ($x$) for a halite paleo-detector (modeled as $^{23}$Na and $^{31}$P; see text). In addition to the signal induced by interactions of atmospheric neutrinos (solid green), we also show the spectrum of background tracks induced by interactions of radiogenic neutrons (dashed orange) and the track length spectrum from spontaneous fission daughters (purple dash-dotted) assuming a $^{238}$U concentration of 0.01 ppb by weight, consistent with previous work on paleo-detectors~\cite{Baum:2019fqm}. See the text for a discussion of these backgrounds. Note that there are two virtually background-free track length regions: $2\,\mu{\rm m} \leq x \leq 20\,\mu$m and $50\,\mu{\rm m} \leq x \leq 1\,$mm. Only recoils with $A$ 4$ are included; lighter nuclei are not expected to give rise to visible tracks." width="200px"/> $Distributions of the number of signal events per unit target mass and unit time ($n$) induced by atmospheric neutrino interactions in a halite paleo-detector (modeled as $^{23}$Na and $^{31}$P; see text). {\it Left:} Double differential distribution with respect to the nuclear recoil energy ($E$) and the atomic mass number ($A$). {\it Right:} Differential distribution with respect to the recoil track length ($x$). In addition to the signal induced by interactions of atmospheric neutrinos (solid green), we also show the spectrum of background tracks induced by interactions of radiogenic neutrons (dashed orange) and the track spectrum from spontaneous fission daughters (purple dash-dotted) in the right panel; see the text for a discussion of these backgrounds. Note that there are two virtually background-free track length regions: $2\,\mu{\rm m} \leq x \leq 20\,\mu$m and $50\,\mu{\rm m} \leq x \leq 1\,$mm. Only recoils with $A$ 4$ are included; lighter nuclei are not expected to give rise to visible tracks." width="200px"/> $The average recoil rate one would infer from samples as a function of their age, for three different scenarios: constant atmospheric neutrino flux (green), linearly decreasing flux with a 50\% drop over 1\,Gyr (orange), and constant flux with a transient event where the flux is elevated by 100\% for 100 Myr (purple). Error bands represent the 1$\sigma$ error one would obtain on the average recoil rate from a sample of a given age, assuming that the age of samples can be determined with relative uncertainty of 5\% and its mass with 1\% uncertainty.$ Show more plots

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Record created 2020-07-25, last modified 2024-12-07

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