Topologies of 76 Ge double-beta decay events and calibration procedure biases

Abstract

The analysis of the time profile of electrical signals produced by energy depositions in germanium detectors allows discrimination of events with different topologies. This is especially relevant for experiments searching for the neutrinoless double beta decay of 76Ge to distinguish the sought-after signal from other background sources. The standard calibration procedures used to tune the selection criteria for double-beta decay events use a 228Th source, because it provides samples of signal-like events. These samples exhibit energy spatial distributions with subtle different topologies compared to neutrinoless double-beta decay events. In this work, we will characterize these topological differences and, with the support of a 56Co source, evaluate biases and precision of calibration techniques which use such event samples. Our results will be particularly relevant for future experiments in which a solid estimation of the efficiency is required

    Similar works