Towards a precision measurement of the half life of neutrinoless double beta decay of 136Xe
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Recent neutrino oscillation experiments provide proof that neutrinos are massive par- ticles, but the absolute neutrino mass scale remains unknown. Observation of neu- trinoless double beta-decay (0vBB), a hypothetical nuclear transition, would provide information on the absolute neutrino mass scale. This decay violates lepton number conservation and requires that neutrinos are massive Majorana particles. Current limits on the half-life of 0vBB are in excess of 10^25 yr. The 200 kg Enriched Xenon Observatory experiment (EXO-200) is a double beta-decay exper- iment designed to improve upon this limit. It is currently in the early stages of commissioning at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, New Mexico. This work discusses first the use of liquid xenon as source and detector medium for double beta decay. The design and construction of EXO-200 is then presented, including a detailed prediction of detector backgrounds and sensitivity.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Copyright date | 2011 |
| Publication date | 2010, c2011; 2010 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | LePort, Francisco Richard |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Physics |
| Primary advisor | Gratta, Giorgio |
| Thesis advisor | Gratta, Giorgio |
| Thesis advisor | Michelson, Peter |
| Thesis advisor | Shenker, Stephen Hart, 1953- |
| Advisor | Michelson, Peter |
| Advisor | Shenker, Stephen Hart, 1953- |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Francisco LePort. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Physics. |
| Thesis | Ph.D. Stanford University 2011 |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2011 by Francisco Richard LePort
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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