Towards high-pressure noble gaseous detectors for coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering

PhD Program

Speaker

Leire Larizgoitia

When

2025/10/13
11:00

Place

Sala Adela Moyua - Facultad de Ciencia y Tecnología, Leioa

Add to calendar

iCal

PhD Thesis defense by Leire Larizgoitia

Supervisor: Francesc Monrabal Capilla (DIPC, Ikerbasque)

Experimental Particle Physics

Coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CEνNS) is a dominant low-energy neutrino interaction that remains experimentally challenging due to its weak-scale cross section and the small nuclear recoil energies involved. This thesis investigates both the scientific motivations and the technical feasibility of CEνNS detection, emphasizing the use of diverse neutrino sources—reactor, spallation, and solar—and multiple target materials. The European Spallation Source (ESS) is identified as a particularly promising site. Motivated by the need to characterize neutron transport at the ESS, a key contribution of this work is the development of a compact, low-cost, 4π neutron scatter camera with integrated optical imaging, capable of localizing neutron sources.

Furthermore, the thesis presents the design and initial testing of GanESS, a novel high-pressure noble gas time projection chamber with electroluminescence amplification, specifically optimized for CEνNS detection using argon, xenon, or krypton. Early results from the Gaseous Prototype (GaP) demonstrate promising energy threshold and stable operational performance. Finally, detailed simulations using Garfield++ and COMSOL, which provide insights into electroluminescence behavior of gaseous detectors, are compared to the observed amplification yield in GaP.

Overall, this work lays a solid foundation for CEνNS studies at spallation sources while advancing detection technologies with broad impact on neutrino physics and rare-event searches.