FPD Seminar

nEXO and the future of neutrinoless double beta decay – Brian Lenardo

America/Los_Angeles
virtual (SLAC)

virtual

SLAC

Password 134699
Description

nEXO and the future of neutrinoless double beta decay

Brian Lenardo (Stanford)

The search for neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ) in atomic nuclei is a powerful probe of many fundamental questions in modern physics. Its observation would be immediate evidence of the Majorana nature of the neutrino, implying the violation of lepton number symmetry and the generation of neutrino masses by a mechanism other than the Higgs. A discovery may also establish the neutrino mass scale and provide a mechanism for producing the baryon asymmetry observed in the universe today. These exciting possibilities have motivated a worldwide program of 0νββ experiments with a variety of isotopes and detection techniques, with the strongest lower limits on the 0νββ halflife currently set at O(10^26) years. In this talk, I will provide an overview of the three next-generation experiments being pursued in the US portfolio (nEXO, LEGEND, and CUPID), which will be constructed over the next decade and push deep into new parameter space. I will then focus in particular on technical developments for the nEXO experiment, which utilizes the multi-faceted background suppression capabilities of a liquid xenon time projection chamber to achieve a projected halflife sensitivity of 1.35 x 10^28 yrs. Finally, I will close with a brief discussion on possibilities for extending the search for 0νββ beyond the next generation of experiments.


Zoom link: https://stanford.zoom.us/j/98973156241?pwd=cEU5RFdlVXoyc0JTeTlDMkozKzQ5UT09

Meeting ID: 946 4276 8923

Organised by

Andrew Bradshaw, Sander Breur
(bradshaw@slac, sanderb@slac)