Detection prospects for the second-order weak decays of 124Xe in multi-tonne xenon time projection chambers

Wittweg, Christian; Lenardo, Brian; Fieguth, Alexander; Weinheimer, Christian

doi:10.1140/epjc/s10052-020-08726-w

Title: Detection prospects for the second-order weak decays of ¹²⁴Xe in multi-tonne xenon time projection chambers

Journal Article · Wed Dec 16 00:00:00 EST 2020 · European Physical Journal. C, Particles and Fields

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-020-08726-w· OSTI ID:1852453

^[1]; Lenardo, Brian ^[2]; Fieguth, Alexander ^[2]; Weinheimer, Christian ^[1]

Westfälische Wilhelms-Universitat Munster (Germany)
Stanford Univ., CA (United States)

We investigate the detection prospects for two-neutrino and neutrinoless second-order weak decays of ¹²⁴Xe – double-electron capture (0/2νECEC), electron capture with positron emission (0/2νECβ⁺) and double-positron emission (0/2νβ⁺β⁺) – in multi-tonne xenon time projection chambers. We simulate the decays in a liquid xenon medium and develop a reconstruction algorithm which uses the multi-particle coincidence in these decays to separate signal from background. This is used to compute the expected detection efficiencies as a function of position resolution and energy threshold for planned experiments. In addition, we consider an exhaustive list of possible background sources and find that they are either negligible in rate or can be greatly reduced using our topological reconstruction criteria. In particular, we draw two conclusions: First, with a theoretical half-life of $$T^{2νECβ^+}_{1/2}$$= (1.7 ± 0.6) ∙10²³ year, the 2νECβ⁺ decay of ¹²⁴Xe will likely be detected in upcoming Dark Matter experiments (e.g. XENONnT or LZ), and their major background will be γ-rays from detector construction materials. Second, searches for the 0νECβ⁺ decay mode will likely be background-free, and new parameter space may be within reach. To this end we investigate two different scenarios of existing experimental constraints on the effective neutrino mass. The necessary 500 kg-year exposure of ¹²⁴Xe could be achieved by the baseline design of the DARWIN observatory, or by extracting and using the ¹²⁴Xe from the tailings of the nEXO experiment. We demonstrate how a combination of ¹²⁴Xe results with those from 0νβ^-β^- searches in ¹³⁶Xe could help to identify the neutrinoless decay mechanism.

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Research Organization:: Stanford Univ., CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Nuclear Physics (NP); Karl Van Bibber fellowship; German Research Foundation (DFG)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0017970

OSTI ID:: 1852453

Journal Information:: European Physical Journal. C, Particles and Fields, Vol. 80, Issue 12; ISSN 1434-6044

Publisher:: SpringerCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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