D. Lorca, J. Martín-Albo, F. Monrabal, for the NEXT Collaboration
Neutrinoless double beta decay is a hypothetical, very slow nuclear transition in which two neutrons undergo beta decay simultaneously and without the emission of neutrinos. The importance of this process goes beyond its intrinsic interest: an unambiguous observation would establish a Majorana nature for the neutrino and prove the violation of lepton number. NEXT is a new experiment to search for neutrinoless double beta decay using a radiopure high-pressure xenon gas TPC, filled with 100 kg of Xe enriched in Xe-136. NEXT will be the first large high-pressure gas TPC to use electroluminescence readout with SOFT (Separated, Optimized FuncTions) technology. The design consists in asymmetric TPC, with photomultipliers behind a transparent cathode and position-sensitive light pixels behind the anode. The experiment is approved to start data taking at the Laboratorio Subterr\'aneo de Canfranc (LSC), Spain, in 2014.
View original:
http://arxiv.org/abs/1210.4020
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