Demonstration of neutrinoless double beta decay searches in gaseous xenon with NEXT

Novella, P. ; Sorel, M. ; Usón, A. ; Adams, C. ; Almazán, H. ; Álvarez, V. ; Aparicio, B. ; Aranburu, A. I. ; Arazi, L. ; Arnquist, I. J. ; Auria-Luna, F. ; Ayet, S. ; Azevedo, C. D. R. ; Bailey, K. ; Ballester, F. ; del Barrio-Torregrosa, M. ; Bayo, A. ; Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M. ; Borges, F. I. G. M. ; Bounasser, S. ; Byrnes, N. ; Cárcel, S. ; Carrión, J. V. ; Cebrián, S. (Universidad de Zaragoza) ; Church, E. ; Cid, L. ; Conde, C. A. N. ; Contreras, T. ; Cossío, F. P. ; Dey, E. ; Díaz, G. ; Dickel, T. ; Elorza, M. ; Escada, J. ; Esteve, R. ; Fahs, A. ; Felkai, R. ; Fernandes, L. M. P. ; Ferrario, P. ; Ferreira, A. L. ; Foss, F. W. ; Freitas, E. D. C. ; Freixa, Z. ; Generowicz, J. ; Goldschmidt, A. ; Gómez-Cadenas, J. J. ; González, R. ; Grocott, J. ; Guenette, R. ; Haefner, J. ; Hafidi, K. ; Hauptman, J. ; Henriques, C. A. O. ; Hernando Morata, J. A. ; Herrero-Gómez, P. ; Herrero, V. ; Hervés Carrete, C. ; Ho, J. ; Ho, P. ; Ifergan, Y. ; Jones, B. J. P. ; Labarga, L. ; Larizgoitia, L. ; Larumbe, A. ; Lebrun, P. ; Lopez, F. ; Lopez Gutierrez, D. ; López-March, N. ; Madigan, R. ; Mano, R. D. P. ; Marques, A. P. ; Martín-Albo, J. ; Martínez-Lema, G. ; Martínez-Vara, M. ; Meziani, Z. E. ; Miller, R. L. ; Mistry, K. ; Molina-Canteras, J. ; Monrabal, F. ; Monteiro, C. M. B. ; Mora, F. J. ; Muñoz Vidal, J. ; Navarro, K. ; Nuñez, A. ; Nygren, D. R. ; Oblak, E. ; Odriozola-Gimeno, M. ; Palacio, J. ; Palmeiro, B. ; Para, A. ; Parmaksiz, I. ; Pelegrin, J. ; Pérez Maneiro, M. ; Querol, M. ; Redwine, A. B. ; Renner, J. ; Rivilla, I. ; Rodríguez, J. ; Rogero, C. ; Rogers, L. ; Romeo, B. ; Romo-Luque, C. ; Santos, F. P. ; dos Santos, J. M. F. ; Simón, A. ; Soleti, S. R. ; Stanford, C. ; Teixeira, J. M. R. ; Toledo, J. F. ; Torrent, J. ; Veloso, J. F. C. A. ; Vuong, T. T. ; Waiton, J. ; White, J. T.

Resumen: The NEXT experiment aims at the sensitive search of the neutrinoless double beta decay in 136Xe, using high-pressure gas electroluminescent time projection chambers. The NEXT-White detector is the first radiopure demonstrator of this technology, operated in the Laboratorio Subterráneo de Canfranc. Achieving an energy resolution of 1% FWHM at 2.6 MeV and further background rejection by means of the topology of the reconstructed tracks, NEXT-White has been exploited beyond its original goals in order to perform a neu- trinoless double beta decay search. The analysis considers the combination of 271.6 days of 136Xe-enriched data and 208.9 days of 136Xe-depleted data. A detailed background modeling and measurement has been developed, ensuring the time stability of the radiogenic and cosmogenic contributions across both data samples. Limits to the neutrinoless mode are obtained in two alternative analyses: a background-model-dependent approach and a novel direct background-subtraction technique, offering results with small dependence on the background model assumptions. With a fiducial mass of only 3.50 ± 0.01 kg of 136Xe-enriched xenon, 90% C.L. lower limits to the neutrinoless double beta decay are found in the > 5.5 × 1023 − 1.3 × 1024 yr range, depending on the method. The presented techniques stand as a proof-of-concept for the searches to be implemented with larger NEXT detectors.

Idioma: Inglés

DOI: 10.1007/JHEP09(2023)190

Año: 2023

Publicado en: Journal of High Energy Physics 2023, 9 (2023), [35 pp.]
ISSN: 1126-6708

Factor impacto JCR: 5.0 (2023)

Categ. JCR: PHYSICS, PARTICLES & FIELDS rank: 5 / 30 = 0.167 (2023) - Q1 - T1

Factor impacto CITESCORE: 10.0 - Nuclear and High Energy Physics (Q1)

Factor impacto SCIMAGO: 0.832 - Nuclear and High Energy Physics (Q2)

Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/ERC/951281/EU/A background-free experiment to discover the nature of neutrinos based on single Barium Atom Light Detection/BOLD
Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/H2020/957202/EU/HINDERING DENDRITE GROWTH IN LITHIUM METAL BATTERIES/HIDDEN
Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MICINN/PID2021-125475NB
Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MINECO/CEX2018-000867-S

Tipo y forma: Artículo (Versión definitiva)

Área (Departamento): Área Física Atóm.Molec.y Nucl. (Dpto. Física Teórica)