Paleo-Detectors for Galactic Supernova Neutrinos

Understand

Paleo-detectors are a proposed experimental technique in which one would search for traces of recoiling nuclei in ancient minerals.

• Natural minerals on Earth are as old as $\mathcal{O}(1)\,$Gyr and, in many minerals, the damage tracks left by recoiling nuclei are also preserved for timescales long compared to 1 Gyr once created.
• Thus, even reading out relatively small target samples of order 100 g, paleo-detectors would allow one to search for very rare events thanks to the large exposure, $\varepsilon \sim 100\,{\rm g}\,{\rm Gyr} = 10^5\,{\rm t}\,{\rm yr}$.
• Here, we explore the potential of paleo-detectors to measure nuclear recoils induced by neutrinos from galactic core collapse supernovae.