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10 results on '"Vuong, T"'

1. Demonstration of neutrinoless double beta decay searches in gaseous xenon with NEXT

Author

NEXT Collaboration, Novella, P., Sorel, M., Usón, A., Adams, C., Almazán, H., Álvarez, V., Aparicio, B., Aranburu, A. I., Arazi, L., Arnquist, I. J., Auria-Luna, F., Ayet, S., Azevedo, C. D. R., Bailey, K., Ballester, F., del Barrio-Torregrosa, M., Bayo, A., Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., Borges, F. I. G. M., Bounasser, S., Byrnes, N., Cárcel, S., Carrión, J. V., Cebrián, S., Church, E., Cid, L., Conde, C. A. N., Contreras, T., Cossío, F. P., Dey, E., Díaz, G., Dickel, T., Elorza, M., Escada, J., Esteve, R., Fahs, A., Felkai, R., Fernandes, L. M. P., Ferrario, P., Ferreira, A. L., Foss, F. W., Freitas, E. D. C., Freixa, Z., Generowicz, J., Goldschmidt, A., Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., González, R., Grocott, J., Guenette, R., Haefner, J., Hafidi, K., Hauptman, J., Henriques, C. A. O., Morata, J. A. Hernando, Herrero-Gómez, P., Herrero, V., Carrete, C. Hervés, Ho, J., Ho, P., Ifergan, Y., Jones, B. J. P., Labarga, L., Larizgoitia, L., Larumbe, A., Lebrun, P., Lopez, F., Gutierrez, D. Lopez, López-March, N., Madigan, R., Mano, R. D. P., Marques, A. P., Martín-Albo, J., Martínez-Lema, G., Martínez-Vara, M., Meziani, Z. E., Miller, R. L., Mistry, K., Molina-Canteras, J., Monrabal, F., Monteiro, C. M. B., Mora, F. J., Vidal, J. Muñoz, Navarro, K. E., Nuñez, A., Nygren, D. R., Oblak, E., Odriozola-Gimeno, M., Palacio, J., Palmeiro, B., Para, A., Parmaksiz, I., Pelegrin, J., Maneiro, M. Pérez, Querol, M., Redwine, A. B., Renner, J., Rivilla, I., Rodríguez, J., Rogero, C., Rogers, L., Romeo, B., Romo-Luque, C., Santos, F. P., Santos, J. M. F. dos, Simón, A., Soleti, S. R., Stanford, C., Teixeira, J. M. R., Toledo, J. F., Torrent, J., Veloso, J. F. C. A., Vuong, T. T., Waiton, J., and White, J. T.

Subjects
Nuclear Experiment, High Energy Physics - Experiment, Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors
Abstract

The NEXT experiment aims at the sensitive search of the neutrinoless double beta decay in $^{136}$Xe, using high-pressure gas electroluminescent time projection chambers. The NEXT-White detector is the first radiopure demonstrator of this technology, operated in the Laboratorio Subterr\'aneo de Canfranc. Achieving an energy resolution of 1% FWHM at 2.6 MeV and further background rejection by means of the topology of the reconstructed tracks, NEXT-White has been exploited beyond its original goals in order to perform a neutrinoless double beta decay search. The analysis considers the combination of 271.6 days of $^{136}$Xe-enriched data and 208.9 days of $^{136}$Xe-depleted data. A detailed background modeling and measurement has been developed, ensuring the time stability of the radiogenic and cosmogenic contributions across both data samples. Limits to the neutrinoless mode are obtained in two alternative analyses: a background-model-dependent approach and a novel direct background-subtraction technique, offering results with small dependence on the background model assumptions. With a fiducial mass of only 3.50$\pm$0.01 kg of $^{136}$Xe-enriched xenon, 90% C.L. lower limits to the neutrinoless double beta decay are found in the T$_{1/2}^{0\nu}>5.5\times10^{23}-1.3\times10^{24}$ yr range, depending on the method. The presented techniques stand as a proof-of-concept for the searches to be implemented with larger NEXT detectors.

Published
2023
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2. NEXT-CRAB-0: A High Pressure Gaseous Xenon Time Projection Chamber with a Direct VUV Camera Based Readout

Author

NEXT Collaboration, Byrnes, N. K., Parmaksiz, I., Adams, C., Asaadi, J., Baeza-Rubio, J, Bailey, K., Church, E., González-Díaz, D., Higley, A., Jones, B. J. P., Mistry, K., Moya, I. A., Nygren, D. R., Oyedele, P., Rogers, L., Stogsdill, K., Almazán, H., Álvarez, V., Aparicio, B., Aranburu, A. I., Arazi, L., Arnquist, I. J., Ayet, S., Azevedo, C. D. R., Ballester, F., del Barrio-Torregrosa, M., Bayo, A., Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., Borges, F. I. G. M., Bounasser, S., Cárcel, S., Carrión, J. V., Cebrián, S., Cid, L., Conde, C. A. N., Contreras, T., Cossío, F. P., Dey, E., Díaz, G., Dickel, T., Elorza, M., Escada, J., Esteve, R., Fahs, A., Felkai, R., Fernandes, L. M. P., Ferrario, P., Ferreira, A. L., Foss, F. W., Freitas, E. D. C., Freixa, Z., Generowicz, J., Goldschmidt, A., Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., González, R., Grocott, J., Guenette, R., Haefner, J., Hafidi, K., Hauptman, J., Henriques, C. A. O., Morata, J. A. Hernando, Herrero-Gómez, P., Herrero, V., Carrete, C. Hervés, Ho, J., Ho, P., Ifergan, Y., Labarga, L., Larizgoitia, L., Lebrun, P., Lopez, F, Gutierrez, D. Lopez, López-March, N., Madigan, R., Mano, R. D. P., Marques, A. P., Martín-Albo, J., Martínez-Lema, G., Martínez-Vara, M., Meziani, Z. E., Miller, R. L., Monrabal, F., Monteiro, C. M. B., Mora, F. J., Vidal, J. Muñoz, Navarro, K. E., Novella, P., Nuñez, A., Oblak, E., Odriozola-Gimeno, M., Palacio, J., Palmeiro, B., Para, A., Pelegrin, J, Maneiro, M. Pérez, Querol, M., Redwine, A. B., Renner, J., Rivilla, I., Rodríguez, J., Rogero, C., Romeo, B., Romo-Luque, C., Santos, F. P., Santos, J. M. F. dos, Simón, A., Soleti, S. R., Sorel, M., Stanford, C., Teixeira, J. M. R., Toledo, J. F., Torrent, J., Usón, A., Veloso, J. F. C. A., Vuong, T. T., Waiton, J., and White, J. T.

Subjects
Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors
Abstract

The search for neutrinoless double beta decay ($0\nu\beta\beta$) remains one of the most compelling experimental avenues for the discovery in the neutrino sector. Electroluminescent gas-phase time projection chambers are well suited to $0\nu\beta\beta$ searches due to their intrinsically precise energy resolution and topological event identification capabilities. Scalability to ton- and multi-ton masses requires readout of large-area electroluminescent regions with fine spatial resolution, low radiogenic backgrounds, and a scalable data acquisition system. This paper presents a detector prototype that records event topology in an electroluminescent xenon gas TPC via VUV image-intensified cameras. This enables an extendable readout of large tracking planes with commercial devices that reside almost entirely outside of the active medium.Following further development in intermediate scale demonstrators, this technique may represent a novel and enlargeable method for topological event imaging in $0\nu\beta\beta$., Comment: 30 Pages, 22 figures, Updated to match current JINST submission

Published
2023

3. A Compact Dication Source for Ba$^{2+}$ Tagging and Heavy Metal Ion Sensor Development

Author

Navarro, K. E., Jones, B. J. P., Baeza-Rubio, J., Boyd, M., Denisenko, A. A., Foss, F. W., Giri, S., Miller, R., Nygren, D. R., Tiscareno, M. R., Samaniego, F. J., Stogsdill, K., Adams, C., Almazán, H., Álvarez, V., Aparicio, B., Aranburu, A. I., Arazi, L., Arnquist, I. J., Ayet, S., Azevedo, C. D. R., Bailey, K., Ballester, F., Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., Borges, F. I. G. M., Bounasser, S., Byrnes, N., Cárcel, S., Carrión, J. V., Cebrián, S., Church, E., Conde, C. A. N., Contreras, T., Cossío, F. P., Dey, E., Díaz, G., Dickel, T., Escada, J., Esteve, R., Fahs, A., Felkai, R., Fernandes, L. M. P., Ferrario, P., Ferreira, A. L., Freitas, E. D. C., Freixa, Z., Generowicz, J., Goldschmidt, A., Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., González, R., Grocott, J., Guenette, R., Haefner, J., Hafidi, K., Hauptman, J., Henriques, C. A. O., Morata, J. A. Hernando, Herrero-Gómez, P., Herrero, V., Carrete, C. Hervés, Ho, J., Ho, P., Ifergan, Y., Labarga, L., Larizgoitia, L., Lebrun, P., Gutierrez, D. Lopez, López-March, N., Madigan, R., Mano, R. D. P., Marques, A. P., Martín-Albo, J., Martínez-Lema, G., Martínez-Vara, M., Meziani, Z. E., Mistry, K., Monrabal, F., Monteiro, C. M. B., Mora, F. J., Vidal, J. Muñoz, Novella, P., Nuñez, A., Oblak, E., Odriozola-Gimeno, M., Palmeiro, B., Para, A., Pelegrín, J., Maneiro, M. Pérez, Querol, M., Redwine, A. B., Renner, J., Rivilla, I., Rodríguez, J., Rogero, C., Rogers, L., Romeo, B., Romo-Luque, C., Santos, F. P., Santos, J. M. F. dos, Simón, A., Sorel, M., Stanford, C., Teixeira, J. M. R., Toledo, J. F., Torrent, J., Usón, A., Veloso, J. F. C. A., Vuong, T. T., Waiton, J., and White, J. T.

Subjects
Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, High Energy Physics - Experiment, Nuclear Experiment
Abstract

We present a tunable metal ion beam that delivers controllable ion currents in the picoamp range for testing of dry-phase ion sensors. Ion beams are formed by sequential atomic evaporation and single or multiple electron impact ionization, followed by acceleration into a sensing region. Controllability of the ionic charge state is achieved through tuning of electrode potentials that influence the retention time in the ionization region. Barium, lead, and cobalt samples have been used to test the system, with ion currents identified and quantified using a quadrupole mass analyzer. Realization of a clean $\mathrm{Ba^{2+}}$ ion beam within a bench-top system represents an important technical advance toward the development and characterization of barium tagging systems for neutrinoless double beta decay searches in xenon gas. This system also provides a testbed for investigation of novel ion sensing methodologies for environmental assay applications, with dication beams of Pb$^{2+}$ and Cd$^{2+}$ also demonstrated for this purpose.

Published
2023
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4. Reflectance and fluorescence characteristics of PTFE coated with TPB at visible, UV, and VUV as a function of thickness

Author

Haefner, J., Fahs, A., Ho, J., Stanford, C., Guenette, R., Adams, C., Almazán, H., Álvarez, V., Aparicio, B., Aranburu, A. I., Arazi, L., Arnquist, I. J., Auria-Luna, F., Ayet, S., Azevedo, C. D. R., Bailey, K., Ballester, F., Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., Borges, F. I. G. M., Bounasser, S., Byrnes, N., Cárcel, S., Carrión, J. V., Cebrián, S., Church, E., Conde, C. A. N., Contreras, T., Cossío, F. P., Denisenko, A. A., Dey, E., Díaz, G., Dickel, T., Escada, J., Esteve, R., Felkai, R., Fernandes, L. M. P., Ferrario, P., Ferreira, A. L., Foss, F. W., Freitas, E. D. C., Freixa, Z., Generowicz, J., Goldschmidt, A., Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., González, R., Grocott, J., Hafidi, K., Hauptman, J., Henriques, C. A. O., Morata, J. A. Hernando, Herrero-Gómez, P., Herrero, V., Ho, P., Ifergan, Y., Jones, B. J. P., Kekic, M., Labarga, L., Larizgoitia, L., Lebrun, P., Gutierrez, D. Lopez, López-March, N., Madigan, R., Mano, R. D. P., Martín-Albo, J., Martínez-Lema, G., Martínez-Vara, M., Marques, A. P., Meziani, Z. E., Miller, R., Mistry, K., Molina-Canteras, J., Monrabal, F., Monteiro, C. M. B., Mora, F. J., Vidal, J. Muñoz, Navarro, K., Novella, P., Nuñez, A., Nygren, D. R., Oblak, E., Odriozola-Gimeno, M., Palmeiro, B., Para, A., Querol, M., Redwine, A. B., Renner, J., Rivilla, I., Rodríguez, J., Rogero, C., Rogers, L., Romeo, B., Romo-Luque, C., Santos, F. P., Santos, J. M. F. dos, Simón, A., Sorel, M., Teixeira, J. M. R., Toledo, J. F., Torrent, J., Usón, A., Veloso, J. F. C. A., Vuong, T. T., and Waiton, J.

Subjects
Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, High Energy Physics - Experiment, Physics - Optics
Abstract

Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) is an excellent diffuse reflector widely used in light collection systems for particle physics experiments. In noble element systems, it is often coated with tetraphenyl butadiene (TPB) to allow detection of vacuum ultraviolet scintillation light. In this work this dependence is investigated for PTFE coated with TPB in air for light of wavelengths of 200~nm, 260~nm, and 450~nm. The results show that TPB-coated PTFE has a reflectance of approximately 92\% for thicknesses ranging from 5~mm to 10~mm at 450~nm, with negligible variation as a function of thickness within this range. A cross-check of these results using an argon chamber supports the conclusion that the change in thickness from 5~mm to 10~mm does not affect significantly the light response at 128~nm. Our results indicate that pieces of TPB-coated PTFE thinner than the typical 10~mm can be used in particle physics detectors without compromising the light signal.

Published
2022
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5. The Ion Fluorescence Chamber (IFC): A new concept for directional dark matter and topologically imaging neutrinoless double beta decay searches

Author

Jones, B. J. P., Foss, F. W., Asaadi, J. A., Church, E. D., deLeon, J., Gramellini, E., Seidel, O. H., and Vuong, T. T.

Subjects
Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, High Energy Physics - Experiment, Nuclear Experiment
Abstract

We introduce a novel particle detection concept for large-volume, fine granularity particle detection: The Ion Fluorescence Chamber (IFC). In electronegative gases such as SF$_6$ and SeF$_6$, ionizing particles create ensembles of positive and negative ions. In the IFC, positive ions are drifted to a chemically active cathode where they react with a custom organic turn-on fluorescent monolayer encoding a long-lived 2D image. The negative ions are sensed electrically with course resolution at the anode, inducing an optical microscope to travel to and scan the corresponding cathode location for the fluorescent image. This concept builds on technologies developed for barium tagging in neutrinoless double beta decay, combining the ultra-fine imaging capabilities of an emulsion detector with the monolithic sensing of a time projection chamber. The result is a high precision imaging detector over arbitrarily large volumes without the challenges of ballooning channel count or system complexity. After outlining the concept, we discuss R\&D to be undertaken to demonstrate it, and explore application to both directional dark matter searches in SF$_6$ and searches for neutrinoless double beta decay in large $^{82}$SeF$_6$ chambers., Comment: A Snowmass'21 white paper: For the attention of IF08 and NF05

Published
2022

6. Measurement of the ${}^{136}$Xe two-neutrino double beta decay half-life via direct background subtraction in NEXT

Author

NEXT Collaboration, Novella, P., Sorel, M., Usón, A., Adams, C., Almazán, H., Álvarez, V., Aparicio, B., Aranburu, A. I., Arazi, L., Arnquist, I. J., Ayet, S., Azevedo, C. D. R., Bailey, K., Ballester, F., Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., Borges, F. I. G. M., Bounasser, S., Byrnes, N., Cárcel, S., Carrión, J. V., Cebrián, S., Church, E., Conde, C. A. N., Contreras, T., Cossío, F. P., Denisenko, A. A., Díaz, G., Díaz, J., Dickel, T., Escada, J., Esteve, R., Fahs, A., Felkai, R., Fernandes, L. M. P., Ferrario, P., Ferreira, A. L., Foss, F. W., Freitas, E. D. C., Freixa, Z., Generowicz, J., Goldschmidt, A., Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., González, R., González-Díaz, D., Guenette, R., Gutiérrez, R. M., Haefner, J., Hafidi, K., Hauptman, J., Henriques, C. A. O., Morata, J. A. Hernando, Herrero-Gómez, P., Herrero, V., Ho, J., Ifergan, Y., Jones, B. J. P., Kekic, M., Labarga, L., Laing, A., Larizgoitia, L., Lebrun, P., Gutierrez, D. Lopez, López-March, N., Losada, M., Mano, R. D. P., Martín-Albo, J., Martínez, A., Martínez-Lema, G., Martínez-Vara, M., McDonald, A. D., Meziani, Z. E., Mistry, K., Monrabal, F., Monteiro, C. M. B., Mora, F. J., Vidal, J. Muñoz, Navarro, K., Nygren, D. R., Oblak, E., Odriozola-Gimeno, M., Palmeiro, B., Para, A., Pérez, J., Querol, M., Raymond, A., Redwine, A. B., Renner, J., Ripoll, L., Rivilla, I., García, Y. Rodríguez, Rodríguez, J., Rogero, C., Rogers, L., Romeo, B., Romo-Luque, C., Santos, F. P., Santos, J. M. F. dos, Simón, A., Stanford, C., Teixeira, J. M. R., Thapa, P., Toledo, J. F., Torrent, J., Veloso, J. F. C. A., Vuong, T. T., Webb, R., White, J. T., Woodruff, K., and Yahlali, N.

Subjects
Nuclear Experiment, High Energy Physics - Experiment, Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors
Abstract

We report a measurement of the half-life of the ${}^{136}$Xe 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 ${}^{136}$Xe-enriched and ${}^{136}$Xe-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 $2.34^{+0.80}_{-0.46}\textrm{(stat)}^{+0.30}_{-0.17}\textrm{(sys)}\times10^{21}~\textrm{yr}$ is derived from the background-subtracted energy spectrum. The presented technique demonstrates the feasibility of unique background-model-independent neutrinoless double beta decay searches., Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, and 1 appendix

Published
2021
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7. The Dynamics of Ions on Phased Radio-frequency Carpets in High Pressure Gases and Application for Barium Tagging in Xenon Gas Time Projection Chambers

Author

NEXT Collaboration, Jones, B. J. P., Raymond, A., Woodruff, K., Byrnes, N., Denisenko, A. A., Foss, F. W., Navarro, K., Nygren, D. R., Vuong, T. T., Adams, C., Almazán, H., Álvarez, V., Aparicio, B., Aranburu, A. I., Arazi, L., Arnquist, I. J., Ayet, S., Azevedo, C. D. R., Bailey, K., Ballester, F., Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., Borges, F. I. G. M., Bounasser, S., Cárcel, S., Carrión, J. V., Cebrián, S., Church, E., Conde, C. A. N., Contreras, T., Cossío, F. P., Díaz, G., Díaz, J., Dickel, T., Escada, J., Esteve, R., Fahs, A., Felkai, R., Fernandes, L. M. P., Ferrario, P., Ferreira, A. L., Freitas, E. D. C., Freixa, Z, Generowicz, J., Goldschmidt, A., Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., González, R., González-Díaz, D., Guenette, R., Gutiérrez, R. M., Haefner, J., Hafidi, K., Hauptman, J., Henriques, C. A. O., Hernando~Morata, J. A., Herrero-Gómez, P., Herrero, V., Ho, J., Ifergan, Y., Kekic, M., Labarga, L., Laing, A., Lebrun, P., Gutierrez, D. Lopez, López-March, N., Losada, M., Mano, R. D. P., Martín-Albo, J., Martínez, A., Martínez-Lema, G., Martínez-Vara, M., McDonald, A. D., Meziani, Z. E., Mistry, K., Monrabal, F., Monteiro, C. M. B., Mora, F. J., Vidal, J. Muñoz, Novella, P., Oblak, E., Odriozola-Gimeno, M., Palmeiro, B., Para, A., Pérez, J., Querol, M., Redwine, A. B., Renner, J., Ripoll, L., Rivilla, I., García, Y. Rodríguez, Rodríguez, J., Rogero, C., Rogers, L., Romeo, B., Romo-Luque, C., Santos, F. P., Santos, J. M. F. dos, Simón, A., Sorel, M., Stanford, C., Teixeira, J. M. R., Thapa, P., Toledo, J. F., Torrent, J., Usón, A., Veloso, J. F. C. A., Webb, R., Weiss-Babai, R., White, J. T., and Yahlali, N.

Subjects
Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, Nuclear Experiment
Abstract

Radio-frequency (RF) carpets with ultra-fine pitches are examined for ion transport in gases at atmospheric pressures and above. We develop new analytic and computational methods for modeling RF ion transport at densities where dynamics are strongly influenced by buffer gas collisions. An analytic description of levitating and sweeping forces from phased arrays is obtained, then thermodynamic and kinetic principles are used to calculate ion loss rates in the presence of collisions. This methodology is validated against detailed microscopic SIMION simulations. We then explore a parameter space of special interest for neutrinoless double beta decay experiments: transport of barium ions in xenon at pressures from 1 to 10 bar. Our computations account for molecular ion formation and pressure dependent mobility as well as finite temperature effects. We discuss the challenges associated with achieving suitable operating conditions, which lie beyond the capabilities of existing devices, using presently available or near-future manufacturing techniques., Comment: 26 pages, 16 figures v2: author list update and pre-journal submission adjustments

Published
2021

8. Boosting background suppression in the NEXT experiment through Richardson-Lucy deconvolution

Author

Simón, A., Ifergan, Y., Redwine, A. B., Weiss-Babai, R., Arazi, L., Adams, C., Almazán, H., Álvarez, V., Aparicio, B., Aranburu, A. I., Arnquist, I. J., Azevedo, C. D. R, Bailey, K., Ballester, F., Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., Borges, F. I. G. M., Byrnes, N., Cárcel, S., Carrión, J. V., Cebrián, S., Church, E., Conde, C. A. N., Contreras, T., Cossío, F. P., Denisenko, A. A., Díaz, G., Díaz, J., Escada, J., Esteve, R., Felkai, R., Fernandes, L. M. P., Ferrario, P., Ferreira, A. L., Foss, F., Freitas, E. D. C., Freixa, Z., Generowicz, J., Goldschmidt, A., Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., González, R., González-Díaz, D., Gosh, S., Guenette, R., Gutiérrez, R. M., Haefner, J., Hafidi, K., Hauptman, J., Henriques, C. A. O., Morata, J. A. Hernando, Herrero, P., Herrero, V., Ho, J., Jones, B. J. P., Kekic, M., Labarga, L., Laing, A., Lebrun, P., López-March, N., Losada, M., Mano, R. D. P., Martín-Albo, J., Martínez, A., Martínez-Vara, M., Martínez-Lema, G., McDonald, A. D., Meziani, Z. -E., Monrabal, F., Monteiro, C. M. B., Mora, F. J., Vidal, J. Muñoz, Newhouse, C., Novella, P., Nygren, D. R., Oblak, E., Odriozola-Gimeno, M., Palmeiro, B., Para, A., Pérez, J., Querol, M., Renner, J., Ripoll, L., Rivilla, I., García, Y. Rodríguez, Rodríguez, J., Rogero, C., Rogers, L., Romeo, B., Romo-Luque, C., Santos, F. P., Santos, J. M. F. dos, Sorel, M., Stanford, C., Teixeira, J. M. R., Thapa, P., Toledo, J. F., Torrent, J., Usón, A., Veloso, J. F. C. A., Vuong, T. T., Webb, R., White, J. T., Woodruff, K., and Yahlali, N.

Subjects
Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, High Energy Physics - Experiment
Abstract

Next-generation neutrinoless double beta decay experiments aim for half-life sensitivities of ~$10^{27}$ yr, requiring suppressing backgrounds to <1 count/tonne/yr. For this, any extra background rejection handle, beyond excellent energy resolution and the use of extremely radiopure materials, is of utmost importance. The NEXT experiment exploits differences in the spatial ionization patterns of double beta decay and single-electron events to discriminate signal from background. While the former display two Bragg peak dense ionization regions at the opposite ends of the track, the latter typically have only one such feature. Thus, comparing the energies at the track extremes provides an additional rejection tool. The unique combination of the topology-based background discrimination and excellent energy resolution (1% FWHM at the Q-value of the decay) is the distinguishing feature of NEXT. Previous studies demonstrated a topological background rejection factor of ~5 when reconstructing electron-positron pairs in the $^{208}$Tl 1.6 MeV double escape peak (with Compton events as background), recorded in the NEXT-White demonstrator at the Laboratorio Subterr\'aneo de Canfranc, with 72% signal efficiency. This was recently improved through the use of a deep convolutional neural network to yield a background rejection factor of ~10 with 65% signal efficiency. Here, we present a new reconstruction method, based on the Richardson-Lucy deconvolution algorithm, which allows reversing the blurring induced by electron diffusion and electroluminescence light production in the NEXT TPC. The new method yields highly refined 3D images of reconstructed events, and, as a result, significantly improves the topological background discrimination. When applied to real-data 1.6 MeV $e^-e^+$ pairs, it leads to a background rejection factor of 27 at 57% signal efficiency., Comment: Submitted to JHEP

Published
2021
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9. Barium Selective Chemosensing by Diazacrown Ether Naphthalimide Turn-on Fluorophores for Single Ion Barium Tagging

Author

Thapa, P., Byrnes, N. K., Denisenko, A. A., Foss, Jr., F. W., Jones, B. J. P., Mao, J. X., Nam, K., Newhouse, C. A., Nygren, D. R., McDonald, A. D., Vuong, T. T., and Woodruff, K.

Subjects
Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, High Energy Physics - Experiment, Nuclear Experiment, Physics - Chemical Physics
Abstract

Single molecule fluorescence detection of barium is investigated for enhancing the sensitivity and robustness of a neutrinoless double beta decay ($0\nu\beta\beta$) search in $^{136}$Xe, the discovery of which would alter our understanding of the nature of neutrinos and the early history of the Universe. A key developmental step is the synthesis of barium-selective chemosensors capable of incorporation into ongoing experiments in high-pressure $^{136}$Xe gas. Here we report turn-on fluorescent naphthalimide chemosensors containing monoaza- and diaza-crown ethers as agents for single Ba$^{2+}$ detection. Monoaza-18-crown-6 ether naphthalimide sensors showed sensitivity primarily to Ba$^{2+}$ and Hg$^{2+}$, whereas two diaza-18-crown-6 ether naphthalimides revealed a desirable selectivity toward Ba$^{2+}$. Solution-phase fluorescence and NMR experiments support a photoinduced electron transfer mechanism enabling turn-on fluorescence sensing in the presence of barium ions. Changes in ion-receptor interactions enable effective selectivity between competitive barium, mercury, and potassium ions, with detailed calculations correctly predicting fluorescence responses. With these molecules, dry-phase single Ba$^{2+}$ ion imaging with turn-on fluorescence is realized using oil-free microscopy techniques. This represents a significant advance toward a practical method of single Ba$^{2+}$ detection within large volumes of $^{136}$Xe, plausibly enabling a background-free technique to search for the hypothetical process of $0\nu\beta\beta$., Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures (1 scheme)

Published
2020

10. Sensitivity of a tonne-scale NEXT detector for neutrinoless double beta decay searches

Author

NEXT Collaboration, Adams, C., Álvarez, V., Arazi, L., Arnquist, I. J., Azevedo, C. D. R, Bailey, K., Ballester, F., Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., Borges, F. I. G. M., Byrnes, N., Cárcel, S., Carrión, J. V., Cebrián, S., Church, E., Conde, C. A. N., Contreras, T., Denisenko, A. A., Díaz, G., Díaz, J., Escada, J., Esteve, R., Felkai, R., Fernandes, L. M. P., Ferrario, P., Ferreira, A. L., Foss, F., Freitas, E. D. C., Freixa, Z., Generowicz, J., Goldschmidt, A., Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., González, R., González-Díaz, D., Gosh, S., Guenette, R., Gutiérrez, R. M., Haefner, J., Hafidi, K., Hauptman, J., Henriques, C. A. O., Morata, J. A. Hernando, Herrero, P., Herrero, V., Ho, J., Ifergan, Y., Jones, B. J. P., Kekic, M., Labarga, L., Laing, A., Lebrun, P., López-March, N., Losada, M., Mano, R. D. P., Martín-Albo, J., Martínez, A., Martínez-Vara, M., Martínez-Lema, G., McDonald, A. D., Meziani, Z. E., Monrabal, F., Monteiro, C. M. B., Mora, F. J., Vidal, J. Muñoz, Newhouse, C., Novella, P., Nygren, D. R., Oblak, E., Palmeiro, B., Para, A., Pérez, J., Querol, M., Redwine, A., Renner, J., Ripoll, L., Rivilla, I., García, Y. Rodríguez, Rodríguez, J., Rogero, C., Rogers, L., Romeo, B., Romo-Luque, C., Santos, F. P., Santos, J. M. F. dos, Simón, A., Sorel, M., Stanford, C., Teixeira, J. M. R., Thapa, P., Toledo, J. F., Torrent, J., Usón, A., Veloso, J. F. C. A., Vuong, T. T., Webb, R., Weiss-Babai, R., White, J. T., Woodruff, K., and Yahlali, N.

Subjects
Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, Nuclear Experiment
Abstract

The Neutrino Experiment with a Xenon TPC (NEXT) searches for the neutrinoless double-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 neutrinoless double-beta decay decay better than 1E27 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., Comment: 22 pages, 11 figures

Published
2020

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