Charged-current neutrino-nucleus scattering off Xe isotopes

Abstract

Xenon detectors are used in the search for dark matter and neutrinoless double-beta decay ( 0 ν β β ) . As the next-generation detectors reach masses in the ton scale, neutrinos from astrophysical sources are soon predicted to become background in such detectors. Theoretical predictions of neutrino scattering cross sections and information of nuclear structure effects therein are crucial in accounting for the background. We perform calculations for differential and total cross sections of charged-current neutrino scattering off the most abundant xenon isotopes. The nuclear-structure calculations are made in the proton-neutron quasiparticle random-phase approximation and the microscopic quasiparticle phonon model for even-mass and odd-mass nuclei, respectively. We compute total cross sections as a function of the neutrino energy, and also give estimates of total averaged cross sections for 8 B solar neutrinos and supernova neutrinos using realistic energy distributions.