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PandaX-III: Searching for neutrinoless double beta decay with high pressure 136Xe gas time projection chambers

2017; Springer Science+Business Media; Volume: 60; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1007/s11433-017-9028-0

1674-7348

Xun Chen, Changbo Fu, J. Galán, Karl Giboni, Franco Giuliani, Linghui Gu, K. Han, Xiangdong Ji, Heng Lin, Jianglai Liu, Kaixiang Ni, Hiroki Kusano, Xiangxiang Ren, ShaoBo Wang, Yong Yang, Dan Zhang, Tao Zhang, Li Zhao, Xiangming Sun, Shouyang Hu, Siyu Jian, XingLong Li, Xiaomei Li, H. Liang, Huan‐Qiao Zhang, M. Zhao, J. Zhou, Yajun Mao, Hao Qiao, Siguang Wang, Ying Yuan, Meng Wang, Amir N. Khan, N. Raper, J. Tang, Wei Wang, J. Dong, C. Q. Feng, Cheng Li, Jianbei Liu, Shubin Liu, Xiaolian Wang, Danyang Zhu, J. Castel, S. Cebrián, T. Dafní, J.G. Garza, I.G. Irastorza, F.J. Iguaz, G. Luzón, H. Mirallas, Stéphan Aune, E. Berthoumieux, Y. Bedfer, D. Calvet, N. d’Hose, A. Delbart, Μ. Diakaki, E. Ferrer-Ribas, A. Ferrero, Fabienne Kunne, D. Neyret, T. Papaevangelou, F. Sabatié, Maxence Vanderbroucke, Andi Tan, W. C. Haxton, Yuan Mei, C. Kobdaj, Yupeng Yan,

Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena

Searching for the neutrinoless double beta decay (NLDBD) is now regarded as the topmost promising technique to explore the nature of neutrinos after the discovery of neutrino masses in oscillation experiments. PandaX-III (particle and astrophysical xenon experiment III) will search for the NLDBD of 136Xe at the China Jin Ping Underground Laboratory (CJPL). In the first phase of the experiment, a high pressure gas Time Projection Chamber (TPC) will contain 200 kg, 90% 136Xe enriched gas operated at 10 bar. Fine pitch micro-pattern gas detector (Microbulk Micromegas) will be used at both ends of the TPC for the charge readout with a cathode in the middle. Charge signals can be used to reconstruct the electron tracks of the NLDBD events and provide good energy and spatial resolution. The detector will be immersed in a large water tank to ensure ~5 m of water shielding in all directions. The second phase, a ton-scale experiment, will consist of five TPCs in the same water tank, with improved energy resolution and better control over backgrounds.