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Measurement of Coherent Elastic Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering on Germanium by COHERENT

M. Adhikari1, M. Ahn2, D. Amaya Matamoros3, P. S. Barbeau4,5, V. Belov6,7, I. Bernardi8, C. Bock1, A. Bolozdynya6, R. Bouabid4,5,*,† et al.

A. Bracho4,5, J. Browning9, B. Cabrera-Palmer10, N. Cedarblade-Jones4,5, S. Chen11, A. I. Colón Rivera4,5, V. da Silva12, Y. Efremenko8,13, S. R. Elliott14, A. Erlandson15, L. Fabris13, S. Foster15, A. Galindo-Uribarri13,8, E. Granados Vazquez3, M. P. Green5,13,9, B. Hackett13, J. Hakenmüller4,‡, M. Harada16, M. R. Heath13, S. C. Hedges5,§, Y. Hino17, H. Huang18, W. Huang11, H. Jeong2, B. A. Johnson19, T. Johnson4,5, H. Jones9, A. Khromov6, D. Kim2, C. Koh2, L. Kong11, A. Konovalov6,¶, Y. Koshio17, A. Kumpan6, O. Kyzylova20, Y. Lee2, S. M. Lee18, G. Li18, L. Li4,5, Z. Li21, J. M. Link20, J. Liu1, Q. Liu11, X. Lu19, M. Luxnat19, A. Major4, D. M. Markoff22,5, J. Mattingly23, H. McLaurin13, K. McMichael24, N. Meredith9, Y. Nakajima25, F. Nakanishi26, J. Newby13, N. Ogoi22,5, S. W. Oh2, J. O’Reilly4, A. Orvedahl19, D. S. Parno18, D. Pérez-Loureiro15, D. Pershey3, C. G. Prior4,5, J. Queen4, R. Rapp24, H. Ray27, O. Razuvaeva6,∥, D. Reyna10, D. Rudik6,**, J. Runge4,5, D. J. Salvat19, J. Sander1, K. Scholberg4, H. Sekiya16, A. Shakirov6, G. Simakov6,7, J. Skweres8, W. M. Snow19, V. Sosnovtsev6, M. Stringer15, C. Su11, T. Subedi28, B. Suh19, B. Sur15, R. Tayloe19, Y.-T. Tsai29, E. E. van Nieuwenhuizen4,5, C. J. Virtue30, G. Visser19, K. Walkup20, E. M. Ward8, R. Wendell26, T. Wongjirad12, C. Yang18, Y. Yang1, J. Yoo2, Y. Yu11, A. Zaalishvili4,5, and Y. Zheng11

  • 1Department of Physics, University of South Dakota, Vermillion, South Dakota, 57069, USA
  • 2Department of Physics and Astronomy, Seoul National University, Seoul, 08826, Korea
  • 3Department of Physics, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, 32306, USA
  • 4Department of Physics, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, 27708, USA
  • 5Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory, Durham, North Carolina, 27708, USA
  • 6National Research Nuclear University MEPhI (Moscow Engineering Physics Institute), Moscow, 115409, Russian Federation
  • 7National Research Center “Kurchatov Institute,” Moscow, 123182, Russian Federation
  • 8Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, 37996, USA
  • 9Department of Physics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, 27695, USA
  • 10Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, California, 94550, USA
  • 11University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
  • 12Department of Physics and Astronomy, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, 02155, USA
  • 13Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, 37831, USA
  • 14Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, 87545, USA
  • 15Canadian Nuclear Laboratories Ltd, Chalk River, Ontario, K0J 1J0, Canada
  • 16University of Tokyo, Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, Kamioka, Gifu, 506-1205, Japan
  • 17Department of Physics, Okayama University, Okayama, Okayama, 700-8530, Japan
  • 18Department of Physics, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 15213, USA
  • 19Department of Physics, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, 47405, USA
  • 20Center for Neutrino Physics, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, 24061, USA
  • 21Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii, 96822, USA
  • 22Department of Mathematics and Physics, North Carolina Central University, Durham, North Carolina, 27707, USA
  • 23Department of Nuclear Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, 27695, USA
  • 24Washington & Jefferson College, Washington, Pennsylvania, 15301, USA
  • 25Department of Physics, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, 113-0033, Japan
  • 26Department of Physics, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Kyoto, 606-8502, Japan
  • 27Department of Physics, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, 32611, USA
  • 28Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences, Concord University, Athens, West Virginia, 24712, USA
  • 29SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, California, 94025, USA
  • 30Department of Physics, Laurentian University, Sudbury, Ontario, P3E 2C6, Canada

  • *Contact author: ryan.bouabid@duke.edu
  • †Present address: Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, 87545, USA.
  • ‡Present address: Marietta Blau Institute for Particle Physics of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, A-1010 Wien, Austria.
  • §Present address: Center for Neutrino Physics, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, 24061, USA.
  • ∥Also at: Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 119991, Russian Federation.
  • Present address: Weizmann Institute of Science, Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics, Rehovot, 7610001, Israel.
  • **Present address: University of Naples Federico II, Naples, 80138, Italy.
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 171801 – Published 20 October, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/999m-b763

Abstract

The COHERENT Collaboration reports the most precise measurement of the coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering cross section to date. This measurement was performed with COHERENT’s germanium detector array, Ge-Mini, at the Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. A cumulative exposure of 4.69×1022 protons on target yielded a total number of observed counts of 124−12+14 and a flux-averaged cross section of 0.98±0.10(statistical)±0.10(systematic) relative to the standard-model expectation of 5.9×10−39  cm2. The well-understood energy and timing distributions of the neutrino source allow for independent measurements of muon- and electron-neutrino scattering rates. This information is used to improve constraints on nonstandard neutrino interactions mediated by heavy particles.

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 171801– Published 20 October, 2026
  • Received 1 April 2026
  • Revised 6 August 2026
  • Accepted 27 August 2026
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