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

Xun Chen , Changbo Fu , Javier Galan , Karl Giboni , Franco Giuliani , Linghui Gu , Ke 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 , Hao Liang , Huanqiao Zhang , Mingrui Zhao , Jing Zhou , Yajun Mao , Hao Qiao , Siguang Wang , Ying Yuan , Meng Wang , Amir N. Khan , Neill Raper , Jian Tang , Wei Wang , Jianing Dong , Changqing Feng , Cheng Li , Jianbei Liu , Shubin Liu , Xiaolian Wang , Danyang Zhu , Juan F. Castel , Susana Cebrián , Theopisti Dafni , Javier G. Garza , Igor G. Irastorza , Francisco J. Iguaz , Gloria Luzón , Hector Mirallas , Stephan Aune (1) , Eric Berthoumieux (1) , Yann Bedfer (1) , Denis Calvet (1) , Nicole d'Hose (1) , Alain Delbart (1) , Maria Diakaki (1) , Esther Ferrer-Ribas (1) , Andrea Ferrero (1) , Fabienne Kunne (1) , Damien Neyret (1) , Thomas Papaevangelou (1) , Franck Sabatié (1) , Maxence Vanderbroucke (1) , Andi Tan , Wick Haxton , Yuan Mei , Chinorat Kobdaj , Yu-Peng Yan

1 DPHN - Département de Physique Nucléaire (ex SPhN)

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$^{136}$Xe 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%$^{136}$Xe 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.

Mots clés: neutrinoless double beta decay; lepton number violation; underground experiment; TPC; Micromegas; double-beta decay: (0neutrino); time projection chamber; spatial resolution; energy resolution; xenon: nuclide; detector: design

Domaines: Instrumentations et Détecteurs [physics.ins-det]; Physique des Hautes Energies - Expérience [hep-ex]; Physique Nucléaire Expérimentale [nucl-ex]

Xun Chen, Changbo Fu, Javier Galan, Karl Giboni, Franco Giuliani, et al.. PandaX-III: Searching for neutrinoless double beta decay with high pressure$^{136}$Xe gas time projection chambers. Sci.China Phys.Mech.Astron., 2017, 60 (6), pp.061011. ⟨10.1007/s11433-017-9028-0⟩. ⟨hal-01554617⟩