Interplay of Nuclear, Neutrino and BSM Physics at Low-Energies

Note: There will be a $70 registration fee to attend this workshop. The registration fee includes participation in the workshop, lectures, and coffee breaks.

To participate in this workshop you must visit in-person. There is no virtual component for this event. 

 This workshop aims to advance efforts to identify and characterize the interplay between nuclear, neutrino, and beyond the standard model (BSM) physics signatures at the tens of MeV scale. We aim to bring together experts from the nuclear, neutrino, and BSM community, both theorists and experimentalists who have the common goal of understanding these interactions. 

Tens of MeV neutrinos, e.g. from the stopped pion or core-collapse supernova sources, scatter off target nuclei in a detector via either coherent elastic or inelastic processes. Measurements of the scattering rates of these channels allow the study of SM and BSM physics, which necessitates a solid understanding of the relevant cross-sections. A better understanding of the underlying nuclear physics will be vital in disentangling any potential BSM physics signals from the SM signals at these facilities. 

At stopped-pion facilities, neutrinos are produced as a product of stopped-pion decay, but they are also high-intensity sources of photons emerging from meson decays and cascades which could produce exotic light vector mediators via kinetic mixing. The light vector mediators can then promptly decay into a pair of dark matter particles which are semi-relativistic. There exist many well-motivated models where this scenario is possible. In addition, the three-body decays of charged pions can produce vector/scalar/pseudoscalar mediators which can decay into a pair of dark matter particles. Accurate predictions of inelastic cross-sections of both neutrino- and dark matter-nucleus scattering will allow us to understand SM and BSM physics precisely. 

Our primary goal is to bring together senior and junior researchers in an environment stimulating discussion and collaboration. The workshop will provide a forum to enable future advances in both theoretical and experimental aspects of our understanding of the interplay of nuclear, neutrino, and BSM physics at low energies.