Abstract
nEXO is a proposed experiment to search for the neutrino-less double beta decay (0νββ) of 136Xe in a tonne-scale liquid xenon time projection chamber (TPC) . The nEXO TPC will be equipped with charge collection tiles to form the anode. In this work, the charge reconstruction performance of this anode design is studied with a dedicated simulation package. A multi-variate method and a deep neural network are developed to distinguish simulated 0νββ signals from backgrounds arising from trace levels of natural radioactivity in the detector materials. These simulations indicate that the nEXO TPC with charge-collection tiles shows promising capability to discriminate the 0νββ signal from backgrounds. The estimated half-life sensitivity for 0νββ decay is improved by ∼20 (32)% with the multi-variate (deep neural network) methods considered here, relative to the sensitivity estimated in the nEXO pre-conceptual design report.
Original language | English |
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Article number | P09020 |
Journal | Journal of Instrumentation |
Volume | 14 |
Issue number | 9 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Sep 24 2019 |
Funding
This work has been supported by the Offices of Nuclear and High Energy Physics within DOE's Office of Science, and NSF in the United States, by NERSC, CFI, FRQNT, NRC, and the McDonald Institute (CFREF) in Canada, by IBS in Korea, by RFBR (18-02-00550) in Russia, and by CAS and NSFC in China. This work was supported in part by Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) programs at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). This work has been supported by the Offices of Nuclear and High Energy Physics within DOE’s Office of Science, and NSF in the United States, by NERSC, CFI, FRQNT, NRC, and the McDonald Institute (CFREF) in Canada, by IBS in Korea, by RFBR (18-02-00550) in Russia, and by CAS and NSFC in China. This work was supported in part by Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) programs at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).
Funders | Funder number |
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DOE Office of Science | |
McDonald Institute | |
NERSC | |
NSFC in China | |
Offices of Nuclear and High Energy Physics | |
National Science Foundation | 1833095 |
National Sleep Foundation | |
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory | |
Oak Ridge National Laboratory | ORNL |
Brookhaven National Laboratory | |
Laboratory Directed Research and Development | |
Cummings Foundation | |
Center for African Studies | |
International Biometric Society | |
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory | PNNL |
National Research Council | |
College of Arts and Sciences, University of Nebraska-Lincoln | |
National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center | |
Canada Foundation for Innovation | |
National Natural Science Foundation of China | |
Russian Foundation for Basic Research | 18-02-00550 |
Fonds de recherche du Québec – Nature et technologies | |
Institute for Basic Science | |
Canada First Research Excellence Fund |
Keywords
- Double-beta decay detectors
- Noble liquid detectors (scintillation, ionization, doublephase)