Discovery potential of xenon-based neutrinoless double beta decay experiments in light of small angular scale CMB observations
The South Pole Telescope (SPT) has probed an expanded angular range of the CMB temperature power spectrum. Their recent analysis of the latest cosmological data prefers nonzero neutrino masses, with Σm{sub ν} = (0.32±0.11) eV. This result, if confirmed by the upcoming Planck data, has deep implications on the discovery of the nature of neutrinos. In particular, the values of the effective neutrino mass m{sub ββ} involved in neutrinoless double beta decay (ββ0ν) are severely constrained for both the direct and inverse hierarchy, making a discovery much more likely. In this paper, we focus in xenon-based ββ0ν experiments, on the double grounds of their good performance and the suitability of the technology to large-mass scaling. We show that the current generation, with effective masses in the range of 100 kg and conceivable exposures in the range of 500 kg·year, could already have a sizeable opportunity to observe ββ0ν events, and their combined discovery potential is quite large. The next generation, with an exposure in the range of 10 ton·year, would have a much more enhanced sensitivity, in particular due to the very low specific background that all the xenon technologies (liquid xenon, high-pressure xenon and xenon dissolved in liquid scintillator) can achieve. In addition, a high-pressure xenon gas TPC also features superb energy resolution. We show that such detector can fully explore the range of allowed effective Majorana masses, thus making a discovery very likely.
- OSTI ID:
- 22282981
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2013, Issue 03; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1475-7516
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Double Beta Decay in Xenon-136. Measuring the Neutrino-Emitting Mode and Searching for Majoron-Emitting Modes
Xenon-doped liquid argon TPCs as a neutrinoless double beta decay platform