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Author (up) Gomez-Cadenas, J.J.; Guinea, F.; Fogler, M.M.; Katsnelson, M.I.; Martin-Albo, J.; Monrabal, F.; Muñoz Vidal, J.
Title GraXe, graphene and xenon for neutrinoless double beta decay searches Type Journal Article
Year 2012 Publication Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics Abbreviated Journal J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys.
Volume 02 Issue 2 Pages 037 - 17pp
Keywords neutrino experiments; double beta decay
Abstract We propose a new detector concept, GraXe (to be pronounced as grace), to search for neutrinoless double beta decay in Xe-136. GraXe combines a popular detection medium in rare-event searches, liquid xenon, with a new, background-free material, grapheme. In our baseline design of GraXe, a sphere made of graphene-coated titanium mesh and filled with liquid xenon (LXe) enriched in the Xe-136 isotope is immersed in a large volume of natural LXe instrumented with photodetectors. Liquid xenon is an excellent scintillator, reasonably transparent to its own light. Graphene is transparent over a large frequency range, and impermeable to the xenon. Event position could be deduced from the light pattern detected in the photosensors. External backgrounds would be shielded by the buffer of natural LXe, leaving the ultra-radiopure internal volume virtually free of background. Industrial graphene can be manufactured at a competitive cost to produce the sphere. Enriching xenon in the isotope Xe-136 is easy and relatively cheap, and there is already near one ton of enriched xenon available in the world (currently being used by the EXO, KamLAND-Zen and NEXT experiments). All the cryogenic know-how is readily available from the numerous experiments using liquid xenon. An experiment using the GraXe concept appears realistic and affordable in a short time scale, and its physics potential is enormous.
Address [Gomez-Cadenas, J. J.; Martin-Albo, J.; Monrabal, F.; Munoz Vidal, J.] CSIC, Inst Fis Corpuscular, IFIC, Valencia 46980, Spain, Email: gomez@mail.cern.ch;
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Iop Publishing Ltd Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 1475-7516 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes WOS:000301176000038 Approved no
Is ISI yes International Collaboration yes
Call Number IFIC @ pastor @ Serial 987
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Author (up) Gomez-Cadenas, J.J.; Martin-Albo, J.; Muñoz Vidal, J.; Pena-Garay, C.
Title Discovery potential of xenon-based neutrinoless double beta decay experiments in light of small angular scale CMB observations Type Journal Article
Year 2013 Publication Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics Abbreviated Journal J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys.
Volume 03 Issue 3 Pages 043 - 17pp
Keywords neutrino masses from cosmology; double beta decay
Abstract The South Pole Telescope (SPT) has probed an expanded angular range of the CMB temperature power spectrum. Their recent analysis of the latest cosmological data prefers nonzero neutrino masses, with Sigma m(nu) = (0.32 +/- 0.11) eV. This result, if con firmed by the upcoming Planck data, has deep implications on the discovery of the nature of neutrinos. In particular, the values of the effective neutrino mass m(beta beta) involved in neutrinoless double beta decay (beta beta 0 nu) are severely constrained for both the direct and inverse hierarchy, making a discovery much more likely. In this paper, we focus in xenon-based beta beta 0 nu experiments, on the double grounds of their good performance and the suitability of the technology to large-mass scaling. We show that the current generation, with effective masses in the range of 100 kg and conceivable exposures in the range of 500 kg.year, could already have a sizeable opportunity to observe beta beta 0 nu events, and their combined discovery potential is quite large. The next generation, with an exposure in the range of 10 ton.year, would have a much more enhanced sensitivity, in particular due to the very low specific background that all the xenon technologies (liquid xenon, high-pressure xenon and xenon dissolved in liquid scintillator) can achieve. In addition, a high-pressure xenon gas TPC also features superb energy resolution. We show that such detector can fully explore the range of allowed effective Majorana masses, thus making a discovery very likely.
Address CSIC, Inst Fis Corpuscular, IFIC, Valencia 46090, Spain, Email: gomez@mail.cern.ch;
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Iop Publishing Ltd Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 1475-7516 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes WOS:000316989200044 Approved no
Is ISI yes International Collaboration no
Call Number IFIC @ pastor @ Serial 1434
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Author (up) NEXT Collaboration (Adams, C. et al); Carcel, S.; Carrion, J.V.; Diaz, J.; Felkai, R.; Lopez-March, N.; Martin-Albo, J.; Martinez, A.; Martinez-Vara, M.; Muñoz Vidal, J.; Novella, P.; Palmeiro, B.; Romo-Luque, C.; Sorel, M.; Uson, A.; Yahlali, N.
Title Sensitivity of a tonne-scale NEXT detector for neutrinoless double-beta decay searches Type Journal Article
Year 2021 Publication Journal of High Energy Physics Abbreviated Journal J. High Energy Phys.
Volume 08 Issue 8 Pages 164 - 24pp
Keywords Dark Matter and Double Beta Decay (experiments)
Abstract The Neutrino Experiment with a Xenon TPC (NEXT) searches for the neutrinoless double-beta (0 nu beta beta) decay of Xe-136 using high-pressure xenon gas TPCs with electroluminescent amplification. A scaled-up version of this technology with about 1 tonne of enriched xenon could reach in less than 5 years of operation a sensitivity to the half-life of 0 nu beta beta decay better than 10(27) years, improving the current limits by at least one order of magnitude. This prediction is based on a well-understood background model dominated by radiogenic sources. The detector concept presented here represents a first step on a compelling path towards sensitivity to the parameter space defined by the inverted ordering of neutrino masses, and beyond.
Address [Hauptman, J.] Iowa State Univ, Dept Phys & Astron, Ames, IA USA
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Springer Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 1029-8479 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes WOS:000694208600001 Approved no
Is ISI yes International Collaboration yes
Call Number IFIC @ pastor @ Serial 4967
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Author (up) NEXT Collaboration (Alvarez, V. et al); Agramunt, J.; Ball, M.; Bayarri, J.; Carcel, S.; Cervera-Villanueva, A.; Diaz, J.; Ferrario, P.; Gil, A.; Gomez-Cadenas, J.J.; Gonzalez, K.; Liubarsky, I.; Lorca, D.; Martin-Albo, J.; Monrabal, F.; Muñoz Vidal, J.; Nebot-Guinot, M.; Perez, J.; Rodriguez, J.; Serra, L.; Sorel, M.; Yahlali, N.
Title SiPMs coated with TPB: coating protocol and characterization for NEXT Type Journal Article
Year 2012 Publication Journal of Instrumentation Abbreviated Journal J. Instrum.
Volume 7 Issue Pages P02010
Keywords
Abstract Silicon photomultipliers (SiPM) are the photon detectors chosen for the tracking read-out in NEXT, a neutrinoless beta beta decay experiment which uses a high pressure gaseous xenon time projection chamber (TPC). The reconstruction of event track and topology in this gaseous detector is a key handle for background rejection. Among the commercially available sensors that can be used for tracking, SiPMs offer important advantages, mainly high gain, ruggedness, cost-effectiveness and radio-purity. Their main drawback, however, is their non sensitivity in the emission spectrum of the xenon scintillation (peak at 175 nm). This is overcome by coating these sensors with the organic wavelength shifter tetraphenyl butadiene (TPB). In this paper we describe the protocol developed for coating the SiPMs with TPB and the measurements performed for characterizing the coatings as well as the performance of the coated sensors in the UV-VUV range.
Address
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 1748-0221 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes WOS:000303940900076 Approved no
Is ISI yes International Collaboration yes
Call Number IFIC @ pastor @ Serial 1028
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Author (up) NEXT Collaboration (Alvarez, V. et al); Ball, M.; Carcel, S.; Cervera-Villanueva, A.; Diaz, J.; Ferrario, P.; Gil, A.; Gomez-Cadenas, J.J.; Laing, A.; Liubarsky, I.; Lorca, D.; Martin-Albo, J.; Martinez, A.; Monrabal, F.; Muñoz Vidal, J.; Nebot-Guinot, M.; Rodriguez, J.; Serra, L.; Simon, A.; Sorel, M.; Yahlali, N.
Title Design and characterization of the SiPM tracking system of NEXT-DEMO, a demonstrator prototype of the NEXT-100 experiment Type Journal Article
Year 2013 Publication Journal of Instrumentation Abbreviated Journal J. Instrum.
Volume 8 Issue Pages T05002 - 18pp
Keywords Time projection Chambers (TPC); Gaseous imaging and tracking detectors; Photon detectors for UV; visible and IR photons (solid-state); Particle tracking detectors (Solid-state detectors)
Abstract NEXT-100 experiment aims at searching the neutrinoless double-beta decay of the Xe-136 isotope using a TPC filled with a 100 kg of high-pressure gaseous xenon, with 90% isotopic enrichment. The experiment will take place at the Laboratorio Subterraneo de Canfranc (LSC), Spain. NEXT-100 uses electroluminescence (EL) technology for energy measurement with a resolution better than 1% FWHM. The gaseous xenon in the TPC additionally allows the tracks of the two beta particles to be recorded, which are expected to have a length of up to 30 cm at 10 bar pressure. The ability to record the topological signature of the beta beta 0 nu events provides a powerful background rejection factor for the beta beta experiment. In this paper, we present a novel 3D imaging concept using SiPMs coated with tetraphenyl butadiene (TPB) for the EL read out and its first implementation in NEXT-DEMO, a large-scale prototype of the NEXT-100 experiment. The design and the first characterization measurements of the NEXT-DEMO SiPM tracking system are presented. The SiPM response uniformity over the tracking plane drawn from its gain map is shown to be better than 4%. An automated active control system for the stabilization of the SiPMs gain was developed, based on the voltage supply compensation of the gain drifts. The gain is shown to be stabilized within 0.2% relative variation around its nominal value, provided by Hamamatsu, in a temperature range of 10 degrees C. The noise level from the electronics and the SiPM dark noise is shown to lay typically below the level of 10 photoelectrons (pe) in the ADC. Hence, a detection threshold at 10 pe is set for the acquisition of the tracking signals. The ADC full dynamic range (4096 channels) is shown to be adequate for signal levels of up to 200 pe/mu s, which enables recording most of the tracking signals.
Address [Alvarez, V.; Ball, M.; Carcel, S.; Cervera, A.; Diaz, J.; Ferrario, P.; Gil, A.; Gomez-Cadenas, J. J.; Laing, A.; Liubarsky, I.; Lorca, D.; Martin-Albo, J.; Martinez, A.; Monrabal, F.; Munoz Vidal, J.; Nebot-Guinot, M.; Rodriguez, J.; Serra, L.; Simon, A.; Sorel, M.; Yahlali, N.] CSIC, Inst Fis Corpuscular IFIC, Valencia 46980, Spain, Email: gomez@mail.cern.ch;
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Iop Publishing Ltd Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 1748-0221 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes WOS:000320726000037 Approved no
Is ISI yes International Collaboration yes
Call Number IFIC @ pastor @ Serial 1514
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