170 research outputs found
Search for the neutrinoless double beta decay of 100Mo with the NEMO3 detector and calorimeter research and development for the SuperNEMO experiment
The world’s most precise half-life measurement of T^2nu_1/2 = [7.02 ± 0.01(stat) ± 0.46(syst)] × 10^18 years has been made for the 2\nu��\beta\beta decay of ^100Mo using data from
6.9kg collected with the NEMO3 detector over 1471 days. The 2\nu nuclear matrix element
has been extracted using T^2nu_1/2 and is M^2\nu = 0.126 ± 0.004. The 0\nu��\beta\beta search
yielded a limit on the half-life of T^0\nu_1/2
1/1 > 1.1 × 10^24 years at the 90% CL, corresponding
to a limit on the effective Majorona mass of \langle M\nu e\rangle < 0.3 - 1.0eV, one of the most
stringent constraints on \langle M\nu e\rangle in the world. Limits on the right-handed currents and
Majoron 0\nu��\beta\beta modes have also been set. The world’s most stringent bound has been
set on the Majoron to neutrino coupling constant of \langle g \chi o \rangle < (0.2 − 0.7) × 10^−4.
SuperNEMO is a next generation ��\beta\beta decay experiment, based on the design and experience of NEMO3. Due to start demonstrator operation in 2013, SuperNEMO aims
to achieve a sensitivity of 10^26 years, corresponding to \langle M\nu e\rangle < 50-100meV using ^82Se.
An alternative to the baseline calorimeter design was considered, using 2m x 10cm x
2.54cm scintillator bars. An energy resolution of 10% FWHM at 1 MeV and a time resolution of ~ 450ps was achieved for the alternative design. This is an unprecedented
energy resolution for a scintillator of this size
Performance of different photocathode materials in a liquid argon purity monitor
Purity monitor devices are increasingly used in liquid noble gas time projection chambers to measure the lifetime of drifting electrons. Purity monitors work by emitting electrons from a photocathode material via the photoelectric effect. The electrons are then drifted towards an anode by means of an applied electric drift field. By measuring the difference in charge between the cathode and the anode, one can extract the lifetime of the drifting electrons in the medium. For the first time, we test the performance of different photocathode materials—silver, titanium, and aluminium—and compare them to gold, which is the standard photocathode material used for purity monitors. Titanium and aluminium were found to have a worse performance than gold in vacuum, whereas silver showed a signal of the same order of magnitude as gold. Further tests in liquid argon were carried out on silver and gold with the conclusion that the signal produced by silver is about three times stronger than that of gold
Probing New Physics Models of Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay with SuperNEMO
The possibility to probe new physics scenarios of light Majorana neutrino
exchange and right-handed currents at the planned next generation neutrinoless
double beta decay experiment SuperNEMO is discussed. Its ability to study
different isotopes and track the outgoing electrons provides the means to
discriminate different underlying mechanisms for the neutrinoless double beta
decay by measuring the decay half-life and the electron angular and energy
distributions.Comment: 17 pages, 14 figures, to be published in E.P.J.
Spectral modeling of scintillator for the NEMO-3 and SuperNEMO detectors
We have constructed a GEANT4-based detailed software model of photon
transport in plastic scintillator blocks and have used it to study the NEMO-3
and SuperNEMO calorimeters employed in experiments designed to search for
neutrinoless double beta decay. We compare our simulations to measurements
using conversion electrons from a calibration source of and show
that the agreement is improved if wavelength-dependent properties of the
calorimeter are taken into account. In this article, we briefly describe our
modeling approach and results of our studies.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figure
Results of the BiPo-1 prototype for radiopurity measurements for the SuperNEMO double beta decay source foils
The development of BiPo detectors is dedicated to the measurement of
extremely high radiopurity in Tl and Bi for the SuperNEMO
double beta decay source foils. A modular prototype, called BiPo-1, with 0.8
of sensitive surface area, has been running in the Modane Underground
Laboratory since February, 2008. The goal of BiPo-1 is to measure the different
components of the background and in particular the surface radiopurity of the
plastic scintillators that make up the detector. The first phase of data
collection has been dedicated to the measurement of the radiopurity in
Tl. After more than one year of background measurement, a surface
activity of the scintillators of (Tl) 1.5
Bq/m is reported here. Given this level of background, a larger BiPo
detector having 12 m of active surface area, is able to qualify the
radiopurity of the SuperNEMO selenium double beta decay foils with the required
sensitivity of (Tl) 2 Bq/kg (90% C.L.) with a six
month measurement.Comment: 24 pages, submitted to N.I.M.
Highly-parallelized simulation of a pixelated LArTPC on a GPU
The rapid development of general-purpose computing on graphics processing units (GPGPU) is allowing the implementation of highly-parallelized Monte Carlo simulation chains for particle physics experiments. This technique is particularly suitable for the simulation of a pixelated charge readout for time projection chambers, given the large number of channels that this technology employs. Here we present the first implementation of a full microphysical simulator of a liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) equipped with light readout and pixelated charge readout, developed for the DUNE Near Detector. The software is implemented with an end-to-end set of GPU-optimized algorithms. The algorithms have been written in Python and translated into CUDA kernels using Numba, a just-in-time compiler for a subset of Python and NumPy instructions. The GPU implementation achieves a speed up of four orders of magnitude compared with the equivalent CPU version. The simulation of the current induced on 103 pixels takes around 1 ms on the GPU, compared with approximately 10 s on the CPU. The results of the simulation are compared against data from a pixel-readout LArTPC prototype
Measurement of the 2νββ decay half-life of 150Nd and a search for 0νββ decay processes with the full exposure from the NEMO-3 detector
We present results from a search for neutrinoless double-β (0νββ) decay using 36.6 g of the isotope
150Nd with data corresponding to a live time of 5.25 y recorded with the NEMO-3 detector. We construct a
complete background model for this isotope, including a measurement of the two-neutrino double-β decay
half-life of T2ν
1=2 ¼ ½9.34 0.22ðstatÞ þ0.62 −0.60 ðsystÞ × 1018 y for the ground state transition, which represents
the most precise result to date for this isotope. We perform a multivariate analysis to search for 0νββ decays
in order to improve the sensitivity and, in the case of observation, disentangle the possible underlying decay
mechanisms. As no evidence for 0νββ decay is observed, we derive lower limits on half-lives for several mechanisms involving physics beyond the standard model. The observed lower limit, assuming light
Majorana neutrino exchange mediates the decay, is T0ν
1=2 > 2.0 × 1022 y at the 90% C.L., corresponding to
an upper limit on the effective neutrino mass of hmνi < 1.6–5.3 eV
Identification and reconstruction of low-energy electrons in the ProtoDUNE-SP detector
Measurements of electrons from νe interactions are crucial for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) neutrino oscillation program, as well as searches for physics beyond the standard model, supernova neutrino detection, and solar neutrino measurements. This article describes the selection and reconstruction of low-energy (Michel) electrons in the ProtoDUNE-SP detector. ProtoDUNE-SP is one of the prototypes for the DUNE far detector, built and operated at CERN as a charged particle test beam experiment. A sample of low-energy electrons produced by the decay of cosmic muons is selected with a purity of 95%. This sample is used to calibrate the low-energy electron energy scale with two techniques. An electron energy calibration based on a cosmic ray muon sample uses calibration constants derived from measured and simulated cosmic ray muon events. Another calibration technique makes use of the theoretically well-understood Michel electron energy spectrum to convert reconstructed charge to electron energy. In addition, the effects of detector response to low-energy electron energy scale and its resolution including readout electronics threshold effects are quantified. Finally, the relation between the theoretical and reconstructed low-energy electron energy spectra is derived, and the energy resolution is characterized. The low-energy electron selection presented here accounts for about 75% of the total electron deposited energy. After the addition of lost energy using a Monte Carlo simulation, the energy resolution improves from about 40% to 25% at 50 MeV. These results are used to validate the expected capabilities of the DUNE far detector to reconstruct low-energy electrons
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