Coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering

In nuclear and particle physics, coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering, commonly abbreviated to CEvNS (pronounced /ˈsɛvəns/ like "seven-s"), is a nuclear reaction involving neutrinos of any active flavor scattering off nuclei. In contrast to inverse beta decay, the process only results in a nuclear recoil because the initial and final states must be identical. This process is used in the detection of low-energy neutrinos in neutrino experiments, such as with the first detection by the COHERENT Collaboration, the first measurement of CEvNS using neutrinos from a nuclear reactor with the CONUS+ detector, or the measurement of solar neutrinos with the PandaX and XENON-nT dark matter detectors. It has the highest cross-section for low-energy neutrinos, and has no energy threshold, thus making it an important process for the detection of low energy neutrinos (< 60 MeV). Observations of it provide an essential test of the Standard Model.