Cosmogenic Backgrounds to 0νββ in 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 = 4:07 0:14 (sys) 0:03 (stat) 107cm2 s1, with a vertical intensity of Iv = 2:97+0:14 0:13 (sys) 0:02 (stat) 107cm2 s1 sr1. Simulations of muon-induced backgrounds identified several potential cosmogenic radionuclides, though only 137Xe is a significant background for the 136Xe 0 search with EXO-200. Muon-induced neutron backgrounds were measured using -rays from neutron capture on the detector materials. This provided a measurement of 137Xe yield, and a test of the accuracy of the neutron production and transport simulations. The independently measured rates of 136Xe neutron capture and of 137Xe decay agree within uncertainties. Geant4 and FLUKA simulations were performed to estimate neutron capture rates, and these estimates agreed to within 40% or better with measurements. The ability to identify 136Xe(n; ) events will allow for rejection of 137Xe backgrounds in future 0 analyses. © 2016 IOP Publishing Ltd and Sissa Medialab srl18111sciescopu

Measurement of the drift velocity and transverse diffusion of electrons in liquid xenon with the EXO-200 detector

The EXO-200 Collaboration is searching for neutrinoless double β decay using a liquid xenon (LXe) time projection chamber. This measurement relies on modeling the transport of charge deposits produced by interactions in the LXe to allow discrimination between signal and background events. Here we present measurements of the transverse diffusion constant and drift velocity of electrons at drift fields between 20 V/cm and 615 V/cm using EXO-200 data. At the operating field of 380 V/cm EXO-200 measures a drift velocity of 1.705-0.010+0.014mm/μs and a transverse diffusion coefficient of 55±4cm2/s

Trace radioactive impurities in final construction materials for EXO-200

We report results from a systematic measurement campaign conducted to identify low radioactivity materials for the construction of the EXO-200 double beta decay experiment. Partial results from this campaign have already been reported in a 2008 paper by the EXO collaboration. Here we release the remaining data, collected since 2007, to the public. The data reported were obtained using a variety of analytic techniques. The measurement sensitivities are among the best in the field. Construction of the EXO-200 detector has been concluded, and Phase-I data was taken from 2011 to 2014. The detector's extremely low background implicitly verifies the measurements and the analysis assumptions made during construction and reported in this paper. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved1221sciescopu

Search for Majoron-emitting modes of Xe 136 double beta decay with the complete EXO-200 dataset

© 2021 authors. Published by the American Physical Society.A search for Majoron-emitting modes of the neutrinoless double beta decay of Xe136 is performed with the full EXO-200 dataset. This dataset consists of a total Xe136 exposure of 234.1 kg·yr, and includes data with detector upgrades that have improved the energy threshold relative to previous searches. A lower limit of T1/2Xe136>4.3×1024 yr at 90% C.L. on the half-life of the spectral index n=1 Majoron decay was obtained, a factor of 3.6 more stringent than the previous limit from EXO-200 and a factor of 1.6 more stringent than the previous best limit from KamLAND-Zen. This limit corresponds to a constraint on the Majoron-neutrino coupling constant of |geeM|<(0.4-0.9)×10-5. The lower threshold and the additional data taken resulted in a factor 8.4 improvement for the n=7 mode compared to the previous EXO-200 search. This search provides the most stringent limits to date on the Majoron-emitting decays of Xe136 with spectral indices n=1, 2, 3, and 7.11Nsciescopu

Search for nucleon decays with EXO-200

A search for instability of nucleons bound in Xe136 nuclei is reported with 223 kg·yr exposure of Xe136 in the EXO-200 experiment. Lifetime limits of 3.3×1023 and 1.9×1023 yr are established for nucleon decay to Sb133 and Te133, respectively. These are the most stringent to date, exceeding the prior decay limits by a factor of 9 and 7, respectively

Deep neural networks for energy and position reconstruction in EXO-200

We apply deep neural networks (DNN) to data from the EXO-200 experiment. In the studied cases, the DNN is able to reconstruct the relevant parameters - total energy and position - directly from raw digitized waveforms, with minimal exceptions. For the first time, the developed algorithms are evaluated on real detector calibration data. The accuracy of reconstruction either reaches or exceeds what was achieved by the conventional approaches developed by EXO-200 over the course of the experiment. Most existing DNN approaches to event reconstruction and classification in particle physics are trained on Monte Carlo simulated events. Such algorithms are inherently limited by the accuracy of the simulation. We describe a unique approach that, in an experiment such as EXO-200, allows to successfully perform certain reconstruction and analysis tasks by training the network on waveforms from experimental

The EXO-200 detector, part II: Auxiliary systems

The EXO-200 experiment searched for neutrinoless double-beta decay of 136Xe with a single-phase liquid xenon detector. It used an active mass of 110 kg of 80.6%-enriched liquid xenon in an ultra-low background time projection chamber with ionization and scintillation detection and readout. This paper describes the design and performance of the various support systems necessary for detector operation, including cryogenics, xenon handling, and controls. Novel features of the system were driven by the need to protect the thin-walled detector chamber containing the liquid xenon, to achieve high chemical purity of the Xe, and to maintain thermal uniformity across the detector.11Nsciescopu