Resumen: NEXT-100 is an electroluminescent high-pressure xenon gas time projection chamber that will search for the neutrinoless double beta (0¿ßß) decay of 136Xe. The detector possesses two features of great value for 0¿ßß searches: energy resolution better than 1% FWHM at the Q value of 136Xe and track reconstruction for the discrimination of signal and background events. This combination results in excellent sensitivity, as discussed in this paper. Material-screening measurements and a detailed Monte Carlo detector simulation predict a background rate for NEXT-100 of at most 4 × 10-4 counts keV-1 kg-1 yr-1. Accordingly, the detector will reach a sensitivity to the 0¿ßß-decay half-life of 2.8 × 1025 years (90% CL) for an exposure of 100 kg·year, or 6.0 × 1025 years after a run of 3 effective years. Idioma: Inglés DOI: 10.1007/JHEP05(2016)159 Año: 2016 Publicado en: Journal of High Energy Physics 2016, 5 (2016), [30 pp] ISSN: 1126-6708 Factor impacto JCR: 6.063 (2016) Categ. JCR: PHYSICS, PARTICLES & FIELDS rank: 3 / 29 = 0.103 (2016) - Q1 - T1 Factor impacto SCIMAGO: 1.163 - Nuclear and High Energy Physics (Q1)