Observation of Coherent Elastic Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering

Coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CE$\nu$NS) has eluded detection for over 40 years despite having the largest interaction cross-section for low-energy neutrinos. A first CE$\nu$NS measurement is difficult because it requires sensitivity to low-energy nuclear recoils in a potentially high-background environment. Despite this difficulty, CE$\nu$NS provides a valuable tool to study nuclear structure, supernovae, and neutrino oscillations. The COHERENT experiment recently made a first observation of the CE$\nu$NS process at a 6.7-sigma confidence level by deploying a 14.6-kg CsI[Na] scintillating crystal at the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Beyond a first measurement, COHERENT is deploying a suite of other low-energy-threshold detector technologies to study the CE$\nu$NS process in detail, e.g., the neutron-number-squared dependence of the nuclear target. In this talk, I will discuss the first observation of CE$\nu$NS as well as describe the ongoing and future work by the COHERENT collaboration to study the CE$\nu$NS at the SNS.\\ ~\\ D.~Akimov et al.~(COHERENT Collaboration), Science (03 Aug.~2017). \texttt{arXiv:1708.01294 [nucl-ex]}.