Neutrinos are particles that are notoriously hard to detect, but observations of a process called coherent elastic neutrino–nucleus scattering could enable physicists to develop better ways of studying them

July 29, 2025 | 08:00pm

Observation of elusive interaction between neutrinos and atomic nuclei

Neutrinos are particles that are notoriously hard to detect, but observations of a process called coherent elastic neutrino–nucleus scattering could enable physicists to develop better ways of studying them

Neutrinos are among the least understood elementary particles in the Universe. Neutrinos and antineutrinos are produced by nuclear reactors, particle accelerators and the Sun, as well as by sources outside the Solar System, but they interact only weakly with matter, which makes them difficult to detect. Writing in Nature, Ackermann et al.¹ report an observation of low-energy neutrinos from a nuclear reactor interacting with atomic nuclei. The authors are part of the COherent Neutrino nUcleus Scattering (CONUS) collaboration, which began in Brokdorf, Germany, and is now based in Leibstadt, Switzerland, and known as CONUS+. The measured energies of the neutrinos, which were observed using the CONUS+ experiment, are the lowest of any neutrino event observed so far.