Coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CEvNS) is calculated to be the dominant neutrino scattering channel for neutrinos of energy $E_{\nu }<100\mathrm{MeV}$. We report a limit for this process from data collected in an engineering run of the 29 kg CENNS-10 liquid argon detector located 27.5 m from the pion decay-at-rest neutrino source at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) with $4.2\times {10}^{22}$ protons on target. The dataset provided constraints on beam-related backgrounds critical for future measurements and yielded $<7.4$ candidate CEvNS events which implies a cross section for the process, averaged over the SNS pion decay-at-rest flux, of $<3.4\times {10}^{-39}{\mathrm{cm}}^2$, a limit within twice the Standard Model prediction. This is the first limit on CEvNS from an argon nucleus and confirms the earlier CsI[Na] nonstandard neutrino interaction constraints from the collaboration. This run demonstrated the feasibility of the ongoing experimental effort to detect CEvNS with liquid argon.

• Received 19 September 2019

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.100.115020

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Published by the American Physical Society