Probing Cosmic Neutrino Background through Parametric Fluorescence

Abstract: We point out that relic neutrinos from the Big Bang may induce the parametric fluorescence in molecular systems, which offers a novel way to discover cosmic neutrino background. By coherently scattering with molecular energy levels, a massive neutrino can spontaneously ``decay" into a lighter neutrino and an infrared signal photon, i.e., $\nu^{}_{i} + M \to \nu^{}_{j} + \gamma^{}_{\rm S} + M$, where the molecular state $M$ remains unchanged after the scattering. Because the amplitudes of different radiants are matched in phase, the rate is coherently enhanced and proportional to the squared density of ambient dipoles. When the energy transfer from neutrinos coincides with the molecular energy-level difference, the fluorescence will be on resonance. We find that the event rate for $\nu^{}_{i} \to \nu^{}_{j} + \gamma^{}_{\rm S}$ at the resonance peak through the magnetic dipole transition can reach $R \sim 5~{\rm yr}^{-1}$ (or $10~{\rm yr}^{-1}$) for Dirac (or Majorana) neutrinos for a nominal target with a spatial dimension of $l=3~{\rm m}$. Parity mixing by the Stark effect may help to further magnify the signal rate.