Speaker
Pau Novella
(IFIC)
Description
Although different techniques are used to search for the neutrinoless double beta decay, the common challenges for all the existing or planned experiments are to achieve a good energy resolution and large background rejection factors. The NEXT collaboration addresses these two challenges with a high-pressure gas-Xenon electroluminescent TPC, where the isotope 1 36Xe is used as both the source and the detection medium. The capabilities of this technology have been demonstrated with two small prototypes, NEXT-DBDM and NEXT-DEMO, which were built and operated between 2009 and 2013. The energy resolution has been measured to be below 1% at the Q value of 136Xe, while the reconstruction of the electron tracks provides a powerful background identification handle. A larger prototype containing 10 kg of Xe, NEXT-NEW, is being built in the LSC. This detector will start operation in 2015 with the goal of measuring the bb0n background and the bb2n decay. Given the scalability of the TPC technology, NEXT-NEW will set the grounds for the NEXT-100 detector (100 kg of 136Xe) that will be be operated in the LSC in 2017, searching for the bb0n decay up to a half-life of about 6x1025 years after 3 years of data taking.
Author
Pau Novella
(IFIC)
