Speaker
Description
The NEXT experiment is searching for neutrinoless double beta decay ($0\nu\beta\beta$) in an electroluminescent high pressure gaseous $^{136}$Xe time projection chamber (HPGXeTPC). Positive detection would indicate that the neutrino, unlike all other fundamental leptons, has a Majorana mass term, and that lepton number is not conserved. The NEXT experiment leverages several advantages of the HPGXeTPC technology, including excellent energy resolution (<1% FWHM at the decay energy) and background rejection through track reconstruction. The detector is under construction with installation and commissioning planned for late 2020 or early 2021. NEXT-100 is expected to reach a sensitivity of $1 \times 10^{26}$ years (90% CL) for an exposure of 400 kg$\cdot$year.
Mini-abstract
Design, plans, and expected performance of the upcoming 100 kg gaseous xenon NEXT detector.
| Experiment/Collaboration | NEXT Collaboration |
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