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Searches for CEνNS and physics beyond the standard model using Skipper-CCDs at CONNIE

Alexis A. Aguilar-Arevalo1, Juan Carlos D’Olivo1, Y. Sarkis1, Nicolas Avalos2, Xavier Bertou2, Carla Bonifazi3,4,*, Gustavo Cancelo5, Juan Estrada5, Richard Ford5 et al. (CONNIE Collaboration)

Richard Ford5, Kevin Kuk5, Andrew Lathrop5, Javier Tiffenberg5, Sho Uemura5, Brenda A. Cervantes-Vergara1,5, Claudio Chavez5,6,7, Fernando Chierchie6, Gustavo Coelho Corrêa8, João dos Anjos9, Herman P. Lima, Jr.9, Guillermo Fernandez Moroni5,6, Aldo R. Fernandes Neto10, Ben Kilminster11, Patrick Lemos4, Katherine Maslova4, Irina Nasteva4, Ana Carolina Oliveira4, Pedro Ventura4, Martin Makler3,9, Franciole Marinho12, Jorge Molina7, Diego Stalder7, Laura Paulucci13, Dario Rodrigues14, and Miguel Sofo Haro15 (CONNIE Collaboration)

  • *Contact author: cbonifazi@unsam.edu.ar
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Phys. Rev. D 113, 092017 – Published 29 May, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/l1pf-cpcv

Abstract

The Coherent Neutrino-Nucleus Interaction Experiment (CONNIE) aims to detect the coherent scattering (CEνNS) of reactor antineutrinos off silicon nuclei using thick fully depleted high-resistivity silicon CCDs. Two Skipper-CCD sensors with subelectron readout noise capability were installed at the experiment next to the Angra-2 reactor in 2021, making CONNIE the first experiment to employ Skipper-CCDs for reactor neutrino detection. We report on the performance of the Skipper-CCDs, the new data processing, data quality, and event selection for CEνNS interactions, which enable CONNIE to reach a record low detection threshold of 15 eV. The data were collected over 300 days in 2021–2022 and correspond to exposures of 14.9 g-days with the reactor-on and 3.5 g-days with the reactor-off. The difference between the reactor-on and off event rates shows no excess and yields upper limits for the neutrino interaction rates, comparable with previous CONNIE limits from standard CCDs and higher exposures. Searches for new neutrino interactions beyond the Standard Model improve the previous CONNIE limit on a simplified model with light vector mediators. A first dark matter (DM) search by diurnal modulation by CONNIE obtains the best limits on the DM-electron scattering cross section by a surface-level experiment. These promising results, obtained using a very small-mass sensor, illustrate the potential of Skipper-CCDs to probe rare neutrino interactions and motivate the plans to increase the detector mass in the near future.

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 092017– Published 29 May, 2026
  • Received 1 April 2024
  • Accepted 24 April 2026
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