NEXT, high-pressure xenon gas experiments for ultimate sensitivity to Majorana neutrinos

Abstract

In this paper we describe an innovative type of Time Projection Chamber (TPC), which uses high-pressure xenon gas (HPXe) and electroluminescence amplification of the ionization charge as the basis of an apparatus capable of fully reconstructing the energy and topological signature of rare events. We will discuss a specific design of such HPXe TPC, the NEXT-100 detector, that will search for neutrinoless double beta decay events using 100-150 kg of xenon enriched in the isotope Xe-136. NEXT-100 is currently under construction, after completion of an accelerated and very successful R&D period. It will be installed at the Laboratorio Subterr\'aneo de Canfranc (LSC), in Spain. The commissioning run is expected for late 2013 or early 2014. We will also present physics arguments that suggest that the HPXe technology can be extrapolated to the next-to-next generation (e.g, a fiducial mass of 1 ton of target), which will fully explore the Majorana nature of the neutrino if the mass hierarchy is inverse.