Speaker
Description
The LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment is a low-threshold low-background dark matter detector sensitive to CE$\nu$NS interactions from astrophysical neutrinos. LZ is deployed 4850 feet underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South Dakota. LZ's central volume is a time projection chamber (TPC) containing 7 tonnes of liquid xenon (LXe) in the active volume. CE$\nu$NS interactions in the LXe deposit $\mathcal{O}(1)$ keV, an energy regime to which LZ is sensitive. LZ will detect CE$\nu$NS interactions with neutrinos emitted from the next galactic core-collapse supernova (CCSN), providing complimentary information to observations by scintillator and water-based detectors.
To model LZ's response to the neutrino signal from a CCSN, we have developed $\nu$ESPER: the Neutrino Engine Simulating the Process of Energetic Recoils. We present the architecture of $\nu$ESPER and discuss the CCSN progenitor models available for simulation. We explore the rate of CE$\nu$NS interactions from a 27~M$_\odot$ CCSN progenitor, and make comparisons to the rate of non-CE$\nu$NS neutrino interactions from this progenitor in LZ's TPC and veto systems.
We study LZ's CE$\nu$NS detection efficiency using $\nu$ESPER and the Noble Element Simulation Technique (NEST), a fast simulation tool which models the TPC response. We examine the response for a variety of CCSN progenitors. Finally, we discuss LZ's participation in the Supernova Neutrino Early Warning System 2.0 (SNEWS2.0) network, and the role of CE$\nu$NS-sensitive liquid noble element detectors in multi-messenger astrophysics.
