Sensitivity of the DARWIN observatory to the neutrinoless double beta decay of $$^{136}$$Xe

F. Agostini (1) , S. Maouloud , L. Althueser (2) , F. Amaro , B. Antunovic , E. Aprile (3) , L. Baudis (4) , D. Baur , A. Bismark , P. Breur , A. Brown , G. Bruno , R. Budnik , C. Capelli , J. Cardoso , D. Cichon , M. Clark , A. Colijn , J. Cuenca-García , J. Cussonneau , M. Decowski , A. Depoian , J. Dierle , P. Di Gangi , A. Di Giovanni , S. Diglio , J. Santos , G. Drexlin , K. Eitel , R. Engel , A. Ferella , H. Fischer , M. Galloway , F. Gao , F. Girard , F. Glück , L. Grandi , R. Grössle , R. Gumbsheimer , S. Hansmann-Menzemer , F. Jörg , G. Khundzakishvili , A. Kopec , F. Kuger , L. Krauss , H. Landsman , R. Lang , S. Lindemann , M. Lindner , J. Lopes , A. Loya Villalpando , C. Macolino , A. Manfredini , T. Marrodán Undagoitia , J. Masbou , E. Masson , P. Meinhardt , S. Milutinovic , A. Molinario , C. Monteiro , M. Murra , U. Oberlack , M. Pandurovic , R. Peres , J. Pienaar , M. Pierre , V. Pizzella , J. Qin , D. Ramírez García , S. Reichard , N. Rupp , P. Sanchez-Lucas , G. Sartorelli , D. Schulte , M. Schumann , L. Scotto Lavina , M. Selvi , M. Silva , H. Simgen , M. Steidl , A. Terliuk , C. Therreau , Dominique Thers , K. Thieme , R. Trotta , C. Tunnell , K. Valerius , G. Volta , D. Vorkapic , C. Weinheimer , C. Wittweg , J. Wolf , J. Zopounidis , K. Zuber , Yuri Biondi

1 UNIBO - Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna = University of Bologna
2 WWU - Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster = University of Münster
3 Columbia University [New York]
4 UZH - Universität Zürich [Zürich] = University of Zurich

Abstract The DARWIN observatory is a proposed next-generation experiment to search for particle dark matter and for the neutrinoless double beta decay of $$^{136}$$ 136 Xe. Out of its 50 t total natural xenon inventory, 40 t will be the active target of a time projection chamber which thus contains about 3.6 t of $$^{136}$$ 136 Xe. Here, we show that its projected half-life sensitivity is $$2.4\times {10}^{27}\,{\hbox {year}}$$ 2.4 × 10 27 year , using a fiducial volume of 5 t of natural xenon and 10 year of operation with a background rate of less than 0.2 events/(t $$\cdot $$ · year) in the energy region of interest. This sensitivity is based on a detailed Monte Carlo simulation study of the background and event topologies in the large, homogeneous target. DARWIN will be comparable in its science reach to dedicated double beta decay experiments using xenon enriched in $$^{136}$$ 136 Xe.

Domaines: Instrumentations et Détecteurs [physics.ins-det]

F. Agostini, S. Maouloud, L. Althueser, F. Amaro, B. Antunovic, et al.. Sensitivity of the DARWIN observatory to the neutrinoless double beta decay of $$^{136}$$Xe. European Physical Journal C: Particles and Fields, 2020, 80 (9), ⟨10.1140/epjc/s10052-020-8196-z⟩. ⟨hal-03431776⟩