Speaker
Description
Neutrinoless double beta decay (0𝜈𝛽𝛽) is an extremely rare nuclear decay that occurs when two neutrons in a nucleus simultaneously beta decay without producing any antineutrinos. If observed, 0𝜈𝛽𝛽 would be the rarest decay process observed, and long target half-lives of 10$^{28}$ years necessitate development of new background suppression and signal identification methodologies. The NEXT collaboration is searching for this decay using gaseous $^{136}$Xe, a xenon isotope capable of undergoing double beta decay, and is pursuing an aggressive R&D campaign to develop techniques that may allow for ton-scale detectors with effectively zero background. One such way that this is being explored is via the Camera Readout And Barium-tagging (CRAB) technique, which will use a VUV Image Intensifier coupled to a single high speed, high quantum efficiency TimePix camera to directly image the VUV track light while coincidentally detecting the barium daughter isotope produced when $^{136}$Xe decays. This approach is intended to circumvent technical challenges associated with densely multiplexed SiPM planes for tracking and yields a detector concept that can be upgraded to incorporate to a low voltage barium tagging cathode in a second phase. We will show preliminary results from CRAB-0, a system at the University of Texas at Arlington using a Hamamatsu imagEM X2 EMCCD camera coupled into a prototype VUV Image Intensifier, imaging in 10 bars of Xe gas with high resolution in two dimensions; and discuss progress toward the demonstrator phase, NEXT-CRAB, at Argonne National Laboratory that will enable three dimensional track imaging with the VUV without internal electronics or sensors.
