Division of Nuclear Physics Dissertation Award: First observation of coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering and its future in searches for new physics

More than 40 years after its theoretical description, the process of coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CEvNS) has been observed for the first time by the COHERENT Collaboration, using the world’s smallest functional neutrino detector: a 14.6-kg CsI[Na] crystal located at the Spallation Neutron Source of Oak Ridge National Lab. With its observation, CEvNS has emerged as a viable and powerful mechanism for exploring a wide range of physics, with connections to nuclear structure, astrophysics, dark sector physics, and physics beyond the Standard Model. This talk will discuss the physics accessible with the process and detail aspects of the COHERENT observation, with a focus on some of the demanding calibrations necessary along with the statistical analysis of the collected data. The current and future experimental CEvNS landscape will be surveyed, highlighting the diverse efforts planned and underway within the community, emphasizing their complementarity and underscoring the significant physics reach of this capable, new tool.