Speaker
Description
Double beta decay is a process whereby two neutrons simultaneously decay into protons, emitting two electrons. These exceedingly rare decays have been observed with the emission of two neutrinos. However, if the neutrino is a Majorana fermion, i.e. it is its own anti-particle, double beta decays are also possible without the emission of any neutrinos. The $^{136}$Xe $2\nu\beta\beta$ half-life has been measured to be on the order of $10^{21}$ years, with the lower limit on its $0\nu\beta\beta$ half-life being roughly $10^{25}$ years. Thus, multi-ton detectors are the next generation of search experiments. Then the search for neutrinoless beta decay is a challenge to push down backgrounds in order to observe these exceedingly rare decays. Where possible, observing the daughter ion, e.g. a $^{136}$Ba from a $^{136}$Xe double beta decay, would eliminate all other background signals. So-named barium tagging, then becomes the task of isolating and detecting a single ion in a potentially multi-ton detector medium. Many schemes have been proposed, and I will present progress towards using a capillary based probe for extracting individual ions from liquid xenon. I will show simulations of each step of the extraction and present the apparatus for the experiment.
