A. Craycraft

Search for Majorana neutrinos with the first two years of EXO-200 data

Many extensions of the standard model of particle physics suggest that neutrinos should be Majorana-type fermions—that is, that neutrinos are their own anti-particles—but this assumption is difficult to confirm. Observation of neutrinoless double-β decay (0νββ), a spontaneous transition that may occur in several candidate nuclei, would verify the Majorana nature of the neutrino and constrain the absolute scale of the neutrino mass spectrum. Recent searches carried out with 76Ge (the GERDA experiment) and 136Xe (the KamLAND-Zen and EXO (Enriched Xenon Observatory)-200 experiments) have established the lifetime of this decay to be longer than 1025 years, corresponding to a limit on the neutrino mass of 0.2–0.4 electronvolts. Here we report new results from EXO-200 based on a large 136Xe exposure that represents an almost fourfold increase from our earlier published data sets. We have improved the detector resolution and revised the data analysis. The half-life sensitivity we obtain is 1.9 × 1025 years, an improvement by a factor of 2.7 on previous EXO-200 results. We find no statistically significant evidence for 0νββ decay and set a half-life limit of 1.1 × 1025 years at the 90 per cent confidence level. The high sensitivity holds promise for further running of the EXO-200 detector and future 0νββ decay searches with an improved Xe-based experiment, nEXO.

An RF-only ion-funnel for extraction from high-pressure gases

An RF ion-funnel technique has been developed to extract ions from a high-pressure (10 bar) noble-gas environment into a vacuum (10(-6) mbar). Detailed simulations have been performed and a prototype has been developed for the purpose of extracting Ba-136 ions from Xe gas with high efficiency. With this prototype, ions have been extracted for the first time from high-pressure xenon gas and argon gas. Systematic studies have been carried out and compared to simulations. This demonstration of extraction of ions, with mass comparable to that of the gas generating the high-pressure, has applications to Ba tagging from a Xe-gas time-projection chamber for double-beta decay, as well as to the general problem of recovering trace amounts of an ionized element in a heavy (m > 40 u) carrier gas

Spectroscopy of Ba and Ba + deposits in solid xenon for barium tagging in nEXO

Progress on a method of barium tagging for the nEXO double beta decay experiment is reported. Absorption and emission spectra for deposits of barium atoms and ions in solid xenon matrices are presented. Excitation spectra for prominent emission lines, temperature dependence, and bleaching of the fluorescence reveal the existence of different matrix sites. A regular series of sharp lines observed in

Cosmogenic backgrounds to 0νββ in EXO-200

{\mathrm{Ba}}^{+}

Measurements of the ion fraction and mobility of alpha and beta decay products in liquid xenon using EXO-200

deposits is identified with some type of barium hydride molecule. Lower limits for the fluorescence quantum efficiency of the principal Ba emission transition are reported. Under current conditions, an image of fewer than or equal to

An apparatus to manipulate and identify individual Ba ions from bulk liquid Xe

{10}^{4}

Measurement of the Drift Velocity and Transverse Diffusion of Electrons in Liquid Xenon with the EXO-200 Detector

Ba atoms can be obtained. Prospects for imaging single Ba atoms in solid xenon are discussed.

First Search for Lorentz and CPT Violation in Double Beta Decay with EXO-200

As neutrinoless double-beta decay experiments become more sensitive and intrinsic radioactivity in detector materials is reduced, previously minor contributions to the background must be understood and eliminated. With this in mind, cosmogenic backgrounds have been studied with the EXO-200 experiment. Using the EXO-200 TPC, the muon flux (through a flat horizontal surface) underground at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) has been measured to be {\Phi} = 4.07

Measurements of the ion fraction and mobility of α− and β -decay products in liquid xenon using the EXO-200 detector

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An Optimal Energy Estimator to Reduce Correlated Noise for the EXO-200 Light Readout

0.14 (sys)