Speaker
Description
NEXT (Neutrino Experiment with a Xenon TPC) is a double beta decay experiment located in Huesca (Spain) at the Laboratorio Subterraneo de Canfranc (LSC). It searches for the neutrino-less double beta decay (ββ0ν) of 136Xe, a lepton-number-violation process that would prove the Majorana nature of neutrinos and eventually provide handles for a measurement of the neutrino absolute mass. The latest stage of the experiment finished in summer 2021 with the decommissioning of the NEXT-White detector. NEXT-White proved the outstanding performance of the NEXT technology in terms of the energy resolution (<1% FWHM at 2.6 MeV) and the topology-based background rejection. NEXT-White has also measured the relevant backgrounds for the ββ0ν search using both 136Xe-depleted and 136Xe-enriched xenon. The following stage of the experiment is the NEXT-100 detector, currently under construction. This large scale detector will hold ~100 kg of 136Xe with a background index below 5×10−4 counts/keV/kg/year and will perform the first competitive ββ0ν search within NEXT. As validated with NEXT-White, NEXT-100 will reach a sensitivity to the half-life of 6×10^25 y after 3 years of data taking, paving the way for future ton-scale phases. In this poster, I will present an overview of the status of the construction, screening program and sensitivity predictions for our NEXT-100 detector.
