Search For Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay Research Articles

Low background techniques in bolometers for double-beta decay search

Bolometers are low temperature particle detectors with high energy resolution and detection efficiency. Some types of bolometric detectors are also able to perform an efficient particle identification. A wide variety of radiopure dielectric and diamagnetic materials makes the bolometric technique favorable for applications in astroparticle physics. In particular, thanks to their superior performance, bolometers play an important role in the worldwide efforts on searches for neutrinoless double-beta decay. Such experiments strongly require an extremely low level of the backgrounds that can easily mimic the process searched for. Here, we overview recent progress in the development of low background techniques for bolometric double-beta decay searches.

A novel approach to quantifying the sensitivity of current and future cosmological datasets to the neutrino mass ordering through Bayesian hierarchical modeling

We present a novel approach to derive constraints on neutrino masses, as well as on other cosmological parameters, from cosmological data, while taking into account our ignorance of the neutrino mass ordering. We derive constraints from a combination of current as well as future cosmological datasets on the total neutrino mass Mν and on the mass fractions fν,i=mi/Mν (where the index i=1,2,3 indicates the three mass eigenstates) carried by each of the mass eigenstates mi, after marginalizing over the (unknown) neutrino mass ordering, either normal ordering (NH) or inverted ordering (IH). The bounds on all the cosmological parameters, including those on the total neutrino mass, take therefore into account the uncertainty related to our ignorance of the mass hierarchy that is actually realized in nature. This novel approach is carried out in the framework of Bayesian analysis of a typical hierarchical problem, where the distribution of the parameters of the model depends on further parameters, the hyperparameters. In this context, the choice of the neutrino mass ordering is modeled via the discrete hyperparameterhtype, which we introduce in the usual Markov chain analysis. The preference from cosmological data for either the NH or the IH scenarios is then simply encoded in the posterior distribution of the hyperparameter itself. Current cosmic microwave background (CMB) measurements assign equal odds to the two hierarchies, and are thus unable to distinguish between them. However, after the addition of baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) measurements, a weak preference for the normal hierarchical scenario appears, with odds of 4:3 from Planck temperature and large-scale polarization in combination with BAO (3:2 if small-scale polarization is also included). Concerning next-generation cosmological experiments, forecasts suggest that the combination of upcoming CMB (COrE) and BAO surveys (DESI) may determine the neutrino mass hierarchy at a high statistical significance if the mass is very close to the minimal value allowed by oscillation experiments, as for NH and a fiducial value of Mν=0.06 eV there is a 9:1 preference of normal versus inverted hierarchy. On the contrary, if the sum of the masses is of the order of 0.1 eV or larger, even future cosmological observations will be inconclusive. The innovative statistical strategy exploited here represents a very simple, efficient and robust tool to study the sensitivity of present and future cosmological data to the neutrino mass hierarchy, and a sound competitor to the standard Bayesian model comparison. The unbiased limit on Mν we obtain is crucial for ongoing and planned neutrinoless double beta decay searches.

Electroluminescence collection cell as a readout for a high energy resolution Xenon gas TPC

AXEL is a high pressure xenon gas TPC detector being developed for neutrinoless double-beta decay search. We use the proportional scintillation mode with a new electroluminescence light detection system to achieve high energy resolution in a large detector. The detector also has tracking capabilities, which enable significant background rejection. To demonstrate our detection technique, we constructed a 10L prototype detector filled with up to 10bar xenon gas. The FWHM energy resolution obtained by the prototype detector with 4 bar Xenon gas is 4.0±0.30 % at 122keV, which corresponds to 0.9∼2.0% when extrapolated to the Q value of the 0νββ decay of 136Xe.

The contribution of light Majorana neutrinos to neutrinoless double beta decay and cosmology

The current status of the neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ) search is briefly summarized. The newest knowledge on oscillation parameters (2016 global analysis) and the recent theoretical developments allow us to infer updated expectations and uncertainties on the experimental investigations of 0νββ. In addition, the very stringent bounds on the sum of the active neutrino masses Σ by post-Planck 2015 cosmological analyses have recently become very relevant for the 0νββ search. The values of the Majorana effective mass is smaller than 100 meV at 1σ C.L. Such results motivate further cosmological investigations of neutrino masses and have a great impact for the interpretation of future generations of 0νββ experiments.

Delayed charge recovery discrimination of passivated surface alpha events in P-type point-contact detectors

The Majorana Demonstrator searches for neutrinoless double-beta decay of 76Ge using arrays of high-purity germanium detectors. If observed, this process would demonstrate that lepton number is not a conserved quantity in nature, with implications for grand-unification and for explaining the predominance of matter over antimatter in the universe. A problematic background in such large granular detector arrays is posed by alpha particles. In the Majorana Demonstrator, events have been observed that are consistent with energy-degraded alphas originating on the passivated surface, leading to a potential background contribution in the region-of-interest for neutrinoless double-beta decay. However, it is also observed that when energy deposition occurs very close to the passivated surface, charges drift through the bulk onto that surface, and then drift along it with greatly reduced mobility. This leads to both a reduced prompt signal and a measurable change in slope of the tail of a recorded pulse. In this contribution we discuss the characteristics of these events and the development of a filter that can identify the occurrence of this delayed charge recovery, allowing for the efficient rejection of passivated surface alpha events in analysis.

Physics capabilities of the SNO+ experiment

SNO+ will soon enter its first phase of physics data-taking. The Canadian-based detector forms part of the SNOLAB underground facility, in a Sudbury nickel mine; its location providing more than two kilometres of rock overburden. We present an overview of the SNO+ experiment and its physics capabilities. Our primary goal is the search for neutrinoless double-beta decay, where our expected sensitivity would place an upper limit of 1.9 × 1026 y, at 90% CL, on the half-life of neutrinoless double-beta decay in 130Te. We also intend to build on the success of SNO by studying the solar neutrino spectrum. In the unloaded scintillator phase SNO+ has the ability to make precision measurements of the fluxes of low-energy pep neutrinos and neutrinos from the CNO cycle. Other physics goals include: determining the spectrum of reactor antineutrinos, to further constrain ; detecting neutrinos produced by a galactic supernova and investigating certain modes of nucleon decay.

Calibration of the SNO+ experiment

The main goal of the SNO+ experiment is to perform a low-background and high-isotope-mass search for neutrinoless double-beta decay, employing 780 tonnes of liquid scintillator loaded with tellurium, in its initial phase at 0.5% by mass for a total mass of 1330 kg of 130Te. The SNO+ physics program includes also measurements of geo- and reactor neutrinos, supernova and solar neutrinos. Calibrations are an essential component of the SNO+ data-taking and analysis plan. The achievement of the physics goals requires both an extensive and regular calibration. This serves several goals: the measurement of several detector parameters, the validation of the simulation model and the constraint of systematic uncertainties on the reconstruction and particle identification algorithms.SNO+ faces stringent radiopurity requirements which, in turn, largely determine the materials selection, sealing and overall design of both the sources and deployment systems. In fact, to avoid frequent access to the inner volume of the detector, several permanent optical calibration systems have been developed and installed outside that volume. At the same time, the calibration source internal deployment system was re-designed as a fully sealed system, with more stringent material selection, but following the same working principle as the system used in SNO. This poster described the overall SNO+ calibration strategy, discussed the several new and innovative sources, both optical and radioactive, and covered the developments on source deployment systems.

Development of the front-end board of a Xenon gas Time Projection Chamber at the AXEL neutrinoless double beta decay search experiment

AXEL is a project to search for 0νββ using a High pressure Xenon gas TPC. AXEL uses SiPM’s to measure the energies and the tracks of 0νββ events. About 50,000 SiPM’s are required for final 0νββ searching version, so developing Front-End Boards (FEB) are necessary. We develop FEB that has high energy resolution and wide dynamic range.

Future Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay Search Experiments and Related R&D

The global program of neutrinoless double beta decay search experiments is reviewed, with a focus on those experiments not associated with another oral presentation described in these Proceedings.

Status and Prospects for the EXO-200 and nEXO Experiments

Large ultra-low background liquid xenon detectors have recently emerged as a promising technology that can push the neutrinoless double beta decay search to unprecedented sensitivity. Since it began operation, EXO-200 has completed one of the most sensitive searches for 0νββ decay of 136Xe using its first two years of data. After an unexpected interruption, due to underground incidents at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), EXO-200 has started its Phase-II running in April 2016 with upgrades to its front-end electronics and Rn suppression system. In this article, we report the performance data of upgraded EXO-200 detector and the projected sensitivity for its Phase-II running. nEXO is a next-generation tonne-scale experiment building on the success of EXO-200. This 5 tonne LXe detector will be capable of probing Majorana neutrino mass in the inverted mass hierarchy region. The status of the nEXO experiment will be discussed in the article.

AXEL : Neutrinoless double beta decay search with a high pressure xenon gas Time Projection Chamber

AXEL is a high pressure xenon gas TPC detector being developed for neutrinoless double-beta decay search. It is operated at the proportional scintillation mode. We have developed a new electroluminescence light detection scheme to achieve very high energy resolution with a large detector. The detector has a capability of tracking which can be used to reduce background. The project is in a R&D phase, and we report the current status of our prototype chamber with 10 L and 4 bar Xe gas.

Initial Results from the Majorana Demonstrator

Neutrinoless double-beta decay searches seek to determine the nature of neutrinos, the existence of a lepton violating process, and the effective Majorana neutrino mass. The Majorana Collaboration is assembling an array of high purity Ge detectors to search for neutrinoless double-beta decay in 76Ge. The Majorana Demonstrator is composed of 44.8 kg (29.7 kg enriched in 76Ge) of Ge detectors in total, split between two modules contained in a low background shield at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South Dakota. The initial goals of the Demonstrator are to establish the required background and scalability of a Ge-based, next-generation, tonne-scale experiment. Following a commissioning run that began in 2015, the first detector module started physics data production in early 2016. We will discuss initial results of the Module 1 commissioning and first physics run, as well as the status and potential physics reach of the full Majorana Demonstrator experiment. The collaboration plans to complete the assembly of the second detector module by mid-2016 to begin full data production with the entire array.

Constraining the right-handed gauge boson mass from lepton number violating meson decays in a low scale left-right model

We analyze the lepton number violating (LNV) meson decays that arise in a TeV scale Left Right Symmetry model. The right handed Majorana neutrino $N$ along with the right handed or Standard Model gauge bosons mediate the meson decays and provide a resonant enhancement of the rates if the mass of $N$ ($M_N$) lies in the range $\sim (100\, \rm{MeV}-5\, \rm{GeV})$. Using the expected upper limits on the number of events for the LNV decay modes $M_{1}^{+} \to\ell^{+}\ell^{+}\pi^{-}$~($M_{1}=B, D, D_{s}, K$), we derive constraints plausible on the mass of the right handed charged gauge boson by future searches at the ongoing NA62 and LHCb experiments at CERN, the upcoming Belle II at SuperKEK, as well as at the proposed future experiments, SHiP and FCC-ee. These bounds are complimentary to the limits from same-sign dilepton search at Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The very high intensity of Charmed mesons expected to be produced at SHiP will result in a far more stringent bound, $M_{W_R}>18.4$~TeV (corresponding to $M_N=1.46$~GeV), than the other existing bounds from collider and neutrinoless double beta decay searches.

Global constraints on absolute neutrino masses and their ordering

Within the standard three-neutrino framework, the absolute neutrino masses and their ordering (either normal, NO, or inverted, IO) are currently unknown. However, the combination of current data coming from oscillation experiments, neutrinoless double beta decay searches, and cosmological surveys, can provide interesting constraints for such unknowns in the sub-eV mass range, down to O(0.1) eV in some cases. We discuss current limits on absolute neutrino mass observables by performing a global data analysis, that includes the latest results from oscillation experiments, neutrinoless double beta decay bounds from the KamLAND-Zen experiment, and constraints from representative combinations of Planck measurements and other cosmological data sets. In general, NO appears to be somewhat favored with respect to IO at the level of ~2 sigma, mainly by neutrino oscillation data (especially atmospheric), corroborated by cosmological data in some cases. Detailed constraints are obtained via the chi^2 method, by expanding the parameter space either around separate minima in NO and IO, or around the absolute minimum in any ordering. Implications for upcoming oscillation and non-oscillation neutrino experiments, including beta-decay searches, are also discussed.

Role of triaxiality in 76Ge and 76Se nuclei studied with Gogny energy density functionals

The structure of the nuclei 76Ge and 76Se is studied with symmetry conserving configuration mixing methods based on the Gogny D1S interaction. These two nuclei are of key importance in the search for neutrinoless double-beta decay. The energy density functionals used here include symmetry restorations (particle number and angular momentum) and shape mixing within the generator coordinate method. The comparison with the experimental data shows a good qualitative agreement when triaxial shapes are included, revealing the important role played by this degree of freedom in these two nuclei.

Status of the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR

The MAJORANA Collaboration is constructing the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR, an ultra-low background, modular, HPGe detector array with a mass of 44-kg (29 kg 76Ge and 15 kg natGe) to search for neutrinoless double beta decay in Ge-76. The next generation of tonne-scale Ge-based neutrinoless double beta decay searches will probe the neutrino mass scale in the inverted-hierarchy region. The MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR is envisioned to demonstrate a path forward to achieve a background rate at or below 1 count/tonne/year in the 4 keV region of interest around the Q-value of 2039 keV. The MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR follows a modular implementation to be easily scalable to the next generation experiment. First, the prototype module was assembled; it has been continuously taking data from July 2014 to June 2015. Second, Module 1 with more than half of the total enriched detectors and some natural detectors has been assembled and it is being commissioned. Finally, the assembly of Module 2, which will complete MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR, is already in progress.

Search for Majorana Neutrinos Near the Inverted Mass Hierarchy Region with KamLAND-Zen.

We present an improved search for neutrinoless double-beta (0νββ) decay of ^{136}Xe in the KamLAND-Zen experiment. Owing to purification of the xenon-loaded liquid scintillator, we achieved a significant reduction of the ^{110m}Ag contaminant identified in previous searches. Combining the results from the first and second phase, we obtain a lower limit for the 0νββ decay half-life of T_{1/2}^{0ν}>1.07×10^{26} yr at 90%C.L., an almost sixfold improvement over previous limits. Using commonly adopted nuclear matrix element calculations, the corresponding upper limits on the effective Majorana neutrino mass are in the range 61-165meV. For the most optimistic nuclear matrix elements, this limit reaches the bottom of the quasidegenerate neutrino mass region.

Background constrains of the SuperNEMO experiment for neutrinoless double beta-decay searches

The SuperNEMO experiment is a new generation of experiments dedicated to the search for neutrinoless double beta-decay, which if observed, would confirm the existence of physics beyond the Standard Model. It is based on the tracking and calorimetry techniques, which allow the reconstruction of the final state topology, including timing and kinematics of the double beta-decay transition events, offering a powerful tool for background rejection. While the basic detection strategy of the SuperNEMO detector remains the same as of the NEMO-3 detector, a number of improvements were accomplished for each of detector main components. Upgrades of the detector technologies and development of low-level counting techniques ensure radiopurity control of construction parts of the SuperNEMO detector. A reference material made of glass pellets has been developed to assure quality management and quality control of radiopurity measurements. The first module of the SuperNEMO detector (Demonstrator) is currently under construction in the Modane underground laboratory. No background event is expected in the neutrinoless double beta-decay region in 2.5 years of its operation using 7kg of 82Se. The half-life sensitivity of the Demonstrator is expected to be >6.5·1024 y, corresponding to an effective Majorana neutrino mass sensitivity of |0.2−0.4|eV (90% C.L.). The full SuperNEMO experiment comprising of 20 modules with 100kg of 82Se source should reach an effective Majorana neutrino mass sensitivity of |0.04−0.1| eV, and a half-life limit 1·1026 y.

Status of balloon production for KamLAND-Zen 800 kg phase

KamLAND-Zen is an experiment for neutrinoless double beta decay (0ν2β) search with 136Xe, based on the large liquid scintillator detector KamLAND. KamLAND-Zen includes 16.5m3 xenon loaded liquid scintillator in a 3.16m diameter nylon balloon (inner-balloon) with 25μm wall thickness.KamLAND-Zen 400 (383kg 136Xe used) released a lower limit on the 0ν2β half-life of 136Xe. However, the sensitivity is limited by the contamination of radioactive backgrounds from the inner-balloon. Then, we planned KamLAND-Zen 800, upgrading the detector with a new inner-balloon of 3.84m diameter with 800kg 136Xe and 31.4m3 liquid scintillator.We present the current status of KamLAND-Zen, the new mini-balloon construction and methods to avoid background contaminations. In addition, the development of a scintillating balloon for future upgrades in order to remove the radioactive decay chain daughter nuclei bismuth is also introduced.

A combined limit on the neutrino mass from neutrinoless double-beta decay searches in multiple isotopes

We set a combined limit on the effective Majorana neutrino mass mββ from experimental searches for neutrinoless double-beta decay of multiple isotopes. The limits on mββ range between 130-310 meV, depending on the choice of nuclear matrix element calculation. The limits on mββ can also be translated into a limit on the neutrino mass and mixing parameters of a fourth sterile neutrino.