Coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CEvNS) is a process in which a neutrino scatters off an entire nucleus and for which the
observable signature is a tiny nuclear recoil. It represents a background for direct dark matter detection experiments, as well as a
possible signal for neutrinos from the Sun and supernovae. Furthermore, because the process is cleanly predicted in the Standard
Model of particle physics, a measurement is sensitive to beyond-the-Standard-Model physics. The process was first predicted in
1973. It was measured for the first time by the COHERENT collaboration using the unique, high-quality source of
neutrinos from the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and a cesium iodide crystal scintillator detector.
This talk will describe COHERENT's recent measurement of CEvNS, the status and plans of COHERENT's suite of detectors at the SNS, and
future physics reach.
Observation of coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering by COHERENT
I will summarize the first observation of the neutrino-nucleus scattering process that is seen as a fundamental background to the current searches for dark matter in underground experiments.