PT Journal
AU NEXT Collaboration (Novella, Pea
   Carcel, S
   Carrion, JV
   Diaz, J
   Martin-Albo, J
   Martinez, A
   Martinez-Vara, M
   Muñoz Vidal, J
   Palmeiro, B
   Querol, M
   Romo-Luque, C
   Sorel, M
   Uson, A
   Yahlali, N
TI Measurement of the Xe-136 two-neutrino double-beta-decay half-life via direct background subtraction in NEXT
SO Physical Review C
JI Phys. Rev. C
PY 2022
BP 055501
EP 8pp
VL 105
IS 5
DI 10.1103/PhysRevC.105.055501
LA English
AB We report a measurement of the half-life of the Xe-136 two-neutrino double-beta decay performed with a novel direct-background-subtraction technique. The analysis relies on the data collected with the NEXT-White detector operated with Xe-136-enriched and Xe-136-depleted xenon, as well as on the topology of double-electron tracks. With a fiducial mass of only 3.5 kg of Xe, a half-life of 2.34(-0.46)(+0.80) (stat)(-0.17)(+0.30) (sys) x 10(21) yr is derived from the background-subtracted energy spectrum. The presented technique demonstrates the feasibility of unique background-model-independent neutrinoless double-beta-decay searches.
ER