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Ion Manipulation from Liquid Xe to Vacuum: Ba-Tagging for a nEXO Upgrade and Future 0νββ Experiments Ray, Dwaipayan; Collister, Robert; Rasiwala, Hussain; Backes, Lucas; Balbuena, Ali V.; Brunner, Thomas; Casandjian, Iroise; Chambers, Chris; Cvitan, Megan; Daniels, Tim; Dilling, Jens; Elmansali, Ryan; Fairbank, William; Fudenberg, Daniel; Gornea, Razvan; Gratta, Giorgio; Iverson, Alec; Kwiatkowski, Anna A.; Leach, Kyle G.; Lennarz, Annika; Li, Zepeng; Medina-Peregrina, Melissa; Murray, Kevin; O’Sullivan, Kevin; Ross, Regan; Shaikh, Raad; Shang, Xiao; Soderstrom, Joseph; Varentsov, Victor; Yang, Liang

Abstract

Neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ) provides a way to probe physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. The upcoming nEXO experiment will search for 0νββ decay in 136Xe with a projected half-life sensitivity exceeding 1028 years at the 90% confidence level using a liquid xenon (LXe) Time Projection Chamber (TPC) filled with 5 tonnes of Xe enriched to ∼90% in the ββ-decaying isotope 136Xe. In parallel, a potential future upgrade to nEXO is being investigated with the aim to further suppress radioactive backgrounds and to confirm ββ-decay events. This technique, known as Ba-tagging, comprises extracting and identifying the ββ-decay daughter 136Ba ion. One tagging approach being pursued involves extracting a small volume of LXe in the vicinity of a potential ββ-decay using a capillary tube and facilitating a liquid-to-gas phase transition by heating the capillary exit. The Ba ion is then separated from the accompanying Xe gas using a radio-frequency (RF) carpet and RF funnel, conclusively identifying the ion as 136Ba via laser-fluorescence spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. Simultaneously, an accelerator-driven Ba ion source is being developed to validate and optimize this technique. The motivation for the project, the development of the different aspects, along with the current status and results, are discussed here.

Item Metadata

Title
Ion Manipulation from Liquid Xe to Vacuum: Ba-Tagging for a nEXO Upgrade and Future 0νββ Experiments
Creator
Ray, Dwaipayan; Collister, Robert; Rasiwala, Hussain; Backes, Lucas; Balbuena, Ali V.; Brunner, Thomas; Casandjian, Iroise; Chambers, Chris; Cvitan, Megan; Daniels, Tim; Dilling, Jens; Elmansali, Ryan; Fairbank, William; Fudenberg, Daniel; Gornea, Razvan; Gratta, Giorgio; Iverson, Alec; Kwiatkowski, Anna A.; Leach, Kyle G.; Lennarz, Annika; Li, Zepeng; Medina-Peregrina, Melissa; Murray, Kevin; O’Sullivan, Kevin; Ross, Regan; Shaikh, Raad; Shang, Xiao; Soderstrom, Joseph; Varentsov, Victor; Yang, Liang
Publisher
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
Date Issued
2024-12-19
Description
Neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ) provides a way to probe physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. The upcoming nEXO experiment will search for 0νββ decay in 136Xe with a projected half-life sensitivity exceeding 1028 years at the 90% confidence level using a liquid xenon (LXe) Time Projection Chamber (TPC) filled with 5 tonnes of Xe enriched to ∼90% in the ββ-decaying isotope 136Xe. In parallel, a potential future upgrade to nEXO is being investigated with the aim to further suppress radioactive backgrounds and to confirm ββ-decay events. This technique, known as Ba-tagging, comprises extracting and identifying the ββ-decay daughter 136Ba ion. One tagging approach being pursued involves extracting a small volume of LXe in the vicinity of a potential ββ-decay using a capillary tube and facilitating a liquid-to-gas phase transition by heating the capillary exit. The Ba ion is then separated from the accompanying Xe gas using a radio-frequency (RF) carpet and RF funnel, conclusively identifying the ion as 136Ba via laser-fluorescence spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. Simultaneously, an accelerator-driven Ba ion source is being developed to validate and optimize this technique. The motivation for the project, the development of the different aspects, along with the current status and results, are discussed here.
Subject
Ba-tagging; neutrinoless double beta decay; nEXO upgrade; linear Paul trap; laser-fluorescence spectroscopy; multi-reflection time-of-flight mass spectrometry
Genre
Article
Type
Text
Language
eng
Date Available
2025-01-10
Provider
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Rights
CC BY 4.0
DOI
10.14288/1.0447727
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/2429/90098
Affiliation
Medicine, Faculty of; Non UBC
Citation
Atoms 12 (12): 71 (2024)
Publisher DOI
10.3390/atoms12120071
Peer Review Status
Reviewed
Scholarly Level
Faculty; Researcher
Rights URI
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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CC BY 4.0