A high pressure xenon time projection chamber for double beta decay

Thesis/Dissertation · Sun Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1989

OSTI ID:5928375

O'Callaghan-Hay, B M.G.

This thesis describes the design, construction and performance of a high-pressure, xenon, gas time projection chamber (TPC) for the study of double beta decay in {sup 136}Xe. The TPC when operating at 5 atm can accommodate 28 moles of 60% enriched {sup 136}Xe. The TPC has operated as a detector at Caltech since 1986. It is capable of reconstructing a charged particle trajectory and can easily distinguish between different kinds of charged particles. A gas purification and xenon gas recovery system were developed. The electronics for the 338 channels of readout was developed along with a data acquisition system. Currently, the detector is being prepared at the University of Neuchatel for installation in the low background laboratory situated in the St. Gotthard tunnel, Switzerland. In one year of runtime the detector should be sensitive to a O{nu} lifetime of the order of 10{sup 24}y, which corresponds to a neutrino mass in the range of 0.3 to 3.3 eV.

• Research Organization: California Inst. of Tech., Pasadena, CA (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5928375
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

440103 -- Radiation Instrumentation-- Nuclear Spectroscopic Instrumentation
46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
651720* -- Nuclear Properties & Reactions
A=90-149
Experimental
73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
BETA DECAY
BETA-MINUS DECAY
CONSTRUCTION
DECAY
DOUBLE BETA DECAY
EVEN-EVEN NUCLEI
HIGH PRESSURE
INTERMEDIATE MASS NUCLEI
ISOTOPES
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
MEASURING METHODS
NUCLEAR DECAY
NUCLEI
PERFORMANCE
STABLE ISOTOPES
TIME PROJECTION CHAMBERS
XENON 136
XENON ISOTOPES