Panda X-III: Searching for neutrinoless double beta decay with high pressure ~(136)Xe gas time projection chambers

Searching for the neutrinoless double beta decay(NLDBD)is now regarded as the topmost promising technique to explore the nature of neutrinos after the discovery of neutrino masses in oscillation experiments.Panda X-III(particle and astrophysical xenon experiment III)will search for the NLDBD of136Xe at the China Jin Ping Underground Laboratory(CJPL).In the first phase of the experiment,a high pressure gas Time Projection Chamber(TPC)will contain 200 kg,90%136Xe enriched gas operated at10 bar.Fine pitch micro-pattern gas detector(Microbulk Micromegas)will be used at both ends of the TPC for the charge readout with a cathode in the middle.Charge signals can be used to reconstruct the electron tracks of the NLDBD events and provide good energy and spatial resolution.The detector will be immersed in a large water tank to ensure～5 m of water shielding in all directions.The second phase,a ton-scale experiment,will consist of five TPCs in the same water tank,with improved energy resolution and better control over backgrounds.     

Constraining neutrinoless double beta decay

A class of discrete flavor-symmetry-based models predicts constrained neutrino mass matrix schemes that lead to specific neutrino mass sum-rules (MSR). We show how these theories may constrain the absolute scale of neutrino mass, leading in most of the cases to a lower bound on the neutrinoless double beta decay effective amplitude.     

Project for detecting the double beta decay of136Xe

For detecting the nuclear double beta decay of¹³⁶Xe, a liquid-xenon positive-ion collector and a time-of-flight mass spectrometer are under development for detecting the decay product¹³⁶Ba. Two sets of lasers are used with the mass spectrometer. An Nd-YAG laser is used for sampling¹³⁶Ba from the surface of the positive-ion collector electrode, and a dye laser pumped by an Nd-YAG laser is used for the selective ionization of¹³⁶Ba. The principle of measurements as well as the experimental apparatus and procedures are described in detail, together with our future plans.     

Mean-field effects on neutrinoless double beta decay

Mean-field effects on the nuclear matrix elements involved in the neutrinoless double beta (0νββ) decay of several double-electron and double-positron emitters have been studied within the framework of the relativistic quark-confinement model and the quasiparticle random-phase approximation. The single-particle energies of the model space have been generated both by using the standard Woods-Saxon parametrization of the mean field and adjusting the quasiparticle spectra with the data from neutron- and proton-odd nuclei. The 0νββ rates are found to be much less affected by the energies of the mean-field orbitals than the rates of the two-neutrino double beta decay. The present study suggests that the extracted effective neutrino masses vary within a factor of two when using different realistic single-particle bases in the calculations.     

Non-collapsing QRPA for neutrinoless double beta decay

The standard quasiparticle random phase approximation(QRPA) is widely used to describe the neutrinoless double beta decay process. Although it has been quite successful in many cases of interest, it has some shortcomings. The most important one is that its solutions collapse for physical values of the particle-particle strength. We shall show that modifications can be done which can extend the validity of this standard QRPA beyond the point of collapse. Such modifications are: The introduction of proton-neutron pairing, the inclusion of the Pauli principle and the extension of the Hilbert space. If all these modifications are introduced into the standard QRPA then the collapse does not occur for physical values of the particle-particle strengths. Thus, one might be able to extract more accurate values on the effective neutrino mass by using the best available experimental limits on the half life of neutrinoless double beta decay. Presented by G. Pantis at the Workshop on calculation of double-beta-decay matrix elements (MEDEX’97), Prague, May 27–31, 1997.     

Status of neutrinoless double beta decay searches

Neutrinoless double beta decay is one of the most sensitive tools in non-accelerator particle physics to probe the regime of physics beyond the standard model. It can provide in fact fundamental informations on the character of neutrinos and their absolute mass scale. The present status of experiments searching for neutrinoless double-beta decay (ββ(0ν)) is reviewed and the most relevant results discussed. Phenomenological aspects of ββ(0ν) are introduced. Given the observation of neutrino oscillations and the present knowledge of neutrino masses and mixing parameters, a possibility to observe ββ(0ν) at a neutrino mass scale m _ν in the range 10–50 meV could actually exist. The achievement of the required experimental sensitivity is a real challenge faced by a number of new proposed projects. A review of the various proposed experiments in the context of their figure-of-merit parameters is given. The most important parameters contributing to the experimental sensitivity are finally outlined. A short discussion on nuclear matrix element calculations is also given.     

Effective Majorana mass and neutrinoless double beta decay

The probability distribution for the effective Majorana mass as a function of the lightest neutrino mass in the standard three neutrino scheme is computed via a random sampling from the distributions of the involved mixing angles and squared mass differences. A flat distribution in the \([0,2\pi ]\) range for the Majorana phases is assumed, and the dependence of small values of the effective mass on the Majorana phases is highlighted. The study is then extended with the addition of the cosmological bound on the sum of the neutrino masses. Finally, the prospects for \(0\nu \beta \beta \) decay search with \(^{76}\)Ge, \(^{130}\)Te and \(^{136}\)Xe are discussed, as well as those for the measurement of the electron neutrino mass.     

Nuclear moments for the neutrinoless double beta decay

A derivation of the neutrinoless double beta decay rate, specially adapted for nuclear structure calculations, is presented. It is shown that the Fourier-Bessel expansion of the hadronic currents, jointly with angular momentum recoupling, leads to very simple final expressions for the nuclear form factors. This greatly facilitates the theoretical estimate of the half-life. Our approach does not require the closure approximation, which, however, can be implemented if desired. The method is exemplified for ββ decay ⁴⁸Ca → ⁴⁸Ti, both within the QRPA and a shell-model like model.     

Nuclear structure effects on the neutrinoless double beta decay

The nuclear matrix elements of the 0ν ββ decay of⁷⁶Ge,⁸²Se,¹⁰⁰Mo,^128,130Te,¹³⁶Xe and¹⁵⁰Nd are calculated in the proton-neutron quasiparticle RPA with theG-matrix of the Paris potential. It is shown that the matrix elements are not sensitive to details of nuclear structure, in contrast to the 2ν ββ decay. We investigate effects of ground-state correlations and those of short-range correlations on the suppression of the nuclear matrix elements. We also discuss effective values of the neutrino mass which are deduced from experimental 0ν ββ decay half-lives.     

Probing the mechanism of neutrinoless double beta decay with SuperNEMO

The SuperNEMO experiment is being designed to search for neutrinoless double beta decay. Its experimental technique of tracking and calorimetry provides the means to discriminate different underlying mechanisms for neutrinoless double beta decay by measuring the angular and energy distributions of electrons. The results of a study by the SuperNEMO Collaboration and F. Deppisch (in preparation) [7] for identifying light Majorana neutrino exchange and right-handed currents are presented.