R. Esteve

First proof of topological signature in high pressure xenon gas with electroluminescence amplification

A bstractThe NEXT experiment aims to observe the neutrinoless double beta decay of 136Xe in a high-pressure xenon gas TPC using electroluminescence (EL) to amplify the signal from ionization. One of the main advantages of this technology is the possibility to reconstruct the topology of events with energies close to Qββ. This paper presents the first demonstration that the topology provides extra handles to reject background events using data obtained with the NEXT-DEMO prototype.Single electrons resulting from the interactions of 22Na 1275 keV gammas and electronpositron pairs produced by conversions of gammas from the 228Th decay chain were used to represent the background and the signal in a double beta decay. These data were used to develop algorithms for the reconstruction of tracks and the identification of the energy deposited at the end-points, providing an extra background rejection factor of 24.3 ± 1.4 (stat.)%, while maintaining an efficiency of 66.7 ± 1.% for signal events.

Present Status and Future Perspectives of the NEXT Experiment

NEXT is an experiment dedicated to neutrinoless double beta decay searches in xenon. The detector is a TPC, holding 100 kg of high-pressure xenon enriched in the 136Xe isotope. It is under construction in the Laboratorio Subterraneo de Canfranc in Spain, and it will begin operations in 2015. The NEXT detector concept provides an energy resolutionbetter than 1% FWHM and a topological signal that can be used to reduce the background. Furthermore, the NEXT technology can be extrapolated to a 1 ton-scale experiment.

Dependency of Energy-, Position- and Depth of Interaction Resolution on Scintillation Crystal Coating and Geometry

Options for optimizing the energy and spatial resolution of gamma-ray imaging detectors based on thick, monolithic crystals shaped like flat-topped pyramids were studied. Monte Carlo simulations were made of the scintillation light transport for evaluating the effect of four parameters on the energy resolution, the spatial resolutions, and the depth of interaction (DOI) resolution of the gamma-ray imaging detector. These four parameters are: the reflectivity of the surface coating; the scatter mean free path; the absorption mean free path of the scintillation light; and the angle that defines the inclination of the sides of the pyramidal frustum. In real detectors, the values for the mean free paths for optical photons are normally not known. We estimated these by comparing MC simulations of detector resolutions to measurements for three gamma-ray imaging detectors with LYSO and LSO from different suppliers and with different surface coatings and geometries. The gamma-ray imaging detector measures the energy, centroids, and depth of interaction of the gamma-ray. DOI enhanced charge dividing readouts were used to measure the depth of interaction.

Sensitivity of NEXT-100 to neutrinoless double beta decay

A bstractNEXT-100 is an electroluminescent high-pressure xenon gas time projection chamber that will search for the neutrinoless double beta (0νββ) decay of 136Xe. The detector possesses two features of great value for 0νββ searches: energy resolution better than 1% FWHM at the Q value of 136Xe and track reconstruction for the discrimination of signal and background events. This combination results in excellent sensitivity, as discussed in this paper. Material-screening measurements and a detailed Monte Carlo detector simulation predict a background rate for NEXT-100 of at most 4 × 10−4 counts keV−1 kg−1 yr−1. Accordingly, the detector will reach a sensitivity to the 0νββ-decay half-life of 2.8 × 1025 years (90% CL) for an exposure of 100 kg·year, or 6.0 × 1025 years after a run of 3 effective years.

PESIC: An Integrated Front-End for PET Applications

An ASIC front-end has been developed for multi-anode photomultiplier based nuclear imaging devices. Its architecture has been designed to improve resolution and decrease pile-up probability in Positron Emission Tomography systems which employ continuous scintillator crystals. Analog computation elements are isolated from the photomultiplier by means of a current sensitive preamplifier stage. This allows digitally programmable adjustment of every anode gain, also providing better resolution in gamma event position calculation and a shorter front-end deadtime. The preamplifier stage also offers the possibility of using other types of photomultiplier devices such as SiPM. The ASIC architecture includes measurement of the depth of interaction of the gamma event based on the width of the light distribution in order to reduce parallax error and increase spatial resolution during image reconstruction stage. An output stage of transresistance amplifiers offer voltage output signals which may be introduced in the A/D conversion stage with no further processing.

Background rejection in NEXT using deep neural networks

We investigate the potential of using deep learning techniques to reject background events in searches for neutrinoless double beta decay with high pressure xenon time projection chambers capable of detailed track reconstruction. The differences in the topological signatures of background and signal events can be learned by deep neural networks via training over many thousands of events. These networks can then be used to classify further events as signal or background, providing an additional background rejection factor at an acceptable loss of efficiency. The networks trained in this study performed better than previous methods developed based on the use of the same topological signatures by a factor of 1.2 to 1.6, and there is potential for further improvement.

First proof of topological signature in the high pressure xenon gas TPC with electroluminescence amplification for the NEXT experiment

A bstractThe NEXT experiment aims to observe the neutrinoless double beta decay of 136Xe in a high-pressure xenon gas TPC using electroluminescence (EL) to amplify the signal from ionization. One of the main advantages of this technology is the possibility to reconstruct the topology of events with energies close to Qββ. This paper presents the first demonstration that the topology provides extra handles to reject background events using data obtained with the NEXT-DEMO prototype.Single electrons resulting from the interactions of 22Na 1275 keV gammas and electronpositron pairs produced by conversions of gammas from the 228Th decay chain were used to represent the background and the signal in a double beta decay. These data were used to develop algorithms for the reconstruction of tracks and the identification of the energy deposited at the end-points, providing an extra background rejection factor of 24.3 ± 1.4 (stat.)%, while maintaining an efficiency of 66.7 ± 1.% for signal events.

Detector optimization of a small animal PET camera based on continuous LSO crystals and flat panel PS-PMTs

We have built a PET camera for small animals based on continuous block LSO crystals coupled to a PS-PMT flat panel. When working with continuous crystals, surface treatment is an important factor that strongly determines the main characteristics of the detector module. As a part of the work done for the development of our small animals PET camera, we have investigated the effect of the scintillator crystal surface treatment on the PET detector module performances, in order to optimize crystal configuration. We present the results for spatial resolution, image compression and energy resolution obtained when using different surface treatments in continuous LSO crystals. These results are compared with those obtained from simulations that have been carried out using DETECT2000 package.

Characterisation of NEXT-DEMO using xenon Kα X-rays

The NEXT experiment aims to observe the neutrinoless double beta decay of

An improved measurement of electron-ion recombination in high-pressure xenon gas

^{136}