Kavli Affiliate: Giorgio Gratta
| First 5 Authors: Dwaipayan Ray, Robert Collister, Hussain Rasiwala, Lucas Backes, Ali V. Balbuena
| Summary:
Neutrinoless double beta decay ($0 nu beta beta$) provides a way to probe
physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. The upcoming nEXO
experiment will search for $0nubetabeta$ decay in $^{136}$Xe with a
projected half-life sensitivity exceeding $10^{28}$ years at the 90%
confidence level using a liquid xenon (LXe) Time Projection Chamber (TPC)
filled with 5 tonnes of Xe enriched to $sim$90% in the $beta beta$-decaying
isotope $^{136}$Xe. In parallel, a potential future upgrade to nEXO is being
investigated with the aim to further suppress radioactive backgrounds, and to
confirm $beta beta$-decay events. This technique, known as Ba-tagging,
comprises of extracting and identifying the $beta beta$-decay daughter
$^{136}$Ba ion. One tagging approach being pursued involves extracting a small
volume of LXe in the vicinity of a potential $beta beta$-decay using a
capillary tube and facilitating a liquid to gas phase transition by heating the
capillary exit. The Ba ion is then separated from the accompanying Xe gas using
a radio-frequency (RF) carpet and RF funnel, conclusively identifying the ion
as $^{136}$Ba via laser-fluorescence spectroscopy and mass spectrometry.
Simultaneously, an accelerator-driven Ba ion source is being developed to
validate and optimize this technique. The motivation for the project, the
development of the different aspects along with current status and results are
discussed here.
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