Author: "Benlloch-Rodriguez, J. M." - Searchworks@Jio Institute Digital Library Search Results

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1. Evaluation of Coincidence Time Resolution in a liquid xenon detector with silicon photomultipliers

Author: Salor-Iguiñiz, N., Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., Esteve, R., Romo-Luque, C., Aliaga, R. J., Álvarez, V., Ballester, F., Gadea, R., Monrabal, F., Querol, M., Rappaport, M., Rodríguez, J., Rodríguez-Ponce, J., Teruel-Pardo, S., Toledo, J. F., Torres-Curado, R., Ferrario, P., Herrero, V., and Gómez-Cadenas, J. J.
Subjects: Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, Physics - Medical Physics
Abstract: This work explores the combination of liquid xenon as a scintillating medium and silicon photomultipliers as a readout in Positron Emission Tomography (PET) for enhanced Time-Of-Flight resolution. We present the results of our first prototype optimized to maximize light collection using high-PDE, VUV-sensitive sensors and to minimize time fluctuations. We report a coincidence time resolution of 281 $\pm$ 2 ps FWHM, obtained using a $^{22}$Na calibration source. This result is competitive with the current state-of-the-art PET scanners and represents a significant step forward in the development of liquid xenon as a viable alternative to conventional scintillators in PET technology.
Published: 2024

2. Measurement of Energy Resolution with the NEXT-White Silicon Photomultipliers

Author: Contreras, T., Palmeiro, B., Almazán, H., Para, A., Martínez-Lema, G., Guenette, R., Adams, C., Álvarez, V., Aparicio, B., Aranburu, A. I., Arazi, L., Arnquist, I. J., Auria-Luna, F., Ayet, S., Azevedo, C. D. R., Bailey, K., Ballester, F., del Barrio-Torregrosa, M., Bayo, A., Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., Borges, F. I. G. M., Brodolin, A., Byrnes, N., Cárcel, S., Castillo, A., Cebrián, S., Church, E., Cid, L., Conde, C. A. N., Cossío, F. P., Dey, E., Díaz, G., Dickel, T., Echevarria, C., Elorza, M., Escada, J., Esteve, R., Felkai, R., Fernandes, L. M. P., Ferrario, P., Ferreira, A. L., Foss, F. W., Freixa, Z., García-Barrena, J., Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., González, R., Grocott, J. W. R., Hauptman, J., Henriques, C. A. O., Morata, J. A. Hernando, Herrero-Gómez, P., Herrero, V., Carrete, C. Hervés, Ifergan, Y., Jones, B. J. P., Kellerer, F., Larizgoitia, L., Larumbe, A., Lebrun, P., Lopez, F., López-March, N., Madigan, R., Mano, R. D. P., Marques, A. P., Martín-Albo, J., Martínez-Vara, M., Miller, R. L., Mistry, K., Molina-Canteras, J., Monrabal, F., Monteiro, C. M. B., Mora, F. J., Navarro, K. E., Novella, P., Nuñez, A., Nygren, D. R., Oblak, E., Palacio, J., Parmaksiz, I., Pazos, A., Pelegrin, J., Maneiro, M. Pérez, Querol, M., Redwine, A. B., Renner, J., Rivilla, I., Rogero, C., Rogers, L., Romeo, B., Romo-Luque, C., Santos, F. P., Santos, J. M. F. dos, Seemann, M., Shomroni, I., Silva, P. A. O. C., Simón, A., Soleti, S. R., Sorel, M., Soto-Oton, J., Teixeira, J. M. R., Teruel-Pardo, S., Toledo, J. F., Tonnelé, C., Torrent, J., Trettin, A., Usón, A., Valle, P. R. G., Veloso, J. F. C. A., Waiton, J., and Yubero-Navarro, A.
Subjects: High Energy Physics - Experiment, Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors
Abstract: The NEXT-White detector, a high-pressure gaseous xenon time projection chamber, demonstrated the excellence of this technology for future neutrinoless double beta decay searches using photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) to measure energy and silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) to extract topology information. This analysis uses $^{83m}\text{Kr}$ data from the NEXT-White detector to measure and understand the energy resolution that can be obtained with the SiPMs, rather than with PMTs. The energy resolution obtained of (10.9 $\pm$ 0.6) $\%$, full-width half-maximum, is slightly larger than predicted based on the photon statistics resulting from very low light detection coverage of the SiPM plane in the NEXT-White detector. The difference in the predicted and measured resolution is attributed to poor corrections, which are expected to be improved with larger statistics. Furthermore, the noise of the SiPMs is shown to not be a dominant factor in the energy resolution and may be negligible when noise subtraction is applied appropriately, for high-energy events or larger SiPM coverage detectors. These results, which are extrapolated to estimate the response of large coverage SiPM planes, are promising for the development of future, SiPM-only, readout planes that can offer imaging and achieve similar energy resolution to that previously demonstrated with PMTs.
Published: 2024

3. Fluorescence Imaging of Individual Ions and Molecules in Pressurized Noble Gases for Barium Tagging in $^{136}$Xe

Author: NEXT Collaboration, Byrnes, N., Dey, E., Foss, F. W., Jones, B. J. P., Madigan, R., McDonald, A., Miller, R. L., Navarro, K. E., Norman, L. R., Nygren, D. R., Adams, C., Almazán, H., Álvarez, V., Aparicio, B., Aranburu, A. I., Arazi, L., Arnquist, I. J., Auria-Luna, F., Ayet, S., Azevedo, C. D. R., Barcelon, J. E., Bailey, K., Ballester, F., del Barrio-Torregrosa, M., Bayo, A., Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., Borges, F. I. G. M., Brodolin, A., Cárcel, S., Castillo, A., Cebrián, S., Church, E., Cid, L., Conde, C. A. N., Contreras, T., Cossío, F. P., Díaz, G., Dickel, T., Echevarria, C., Elorza, M., Escada, J., Esteve, R., Felkai, R., Fernandes, L. M. P., Ferrario, P., Ferreira, A. L., Freixa, Z., García-Barrena, J., Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., González, R., Grocott, J. W. R., Guenette, R., Hauptman, J., Henriques, C. A. O., Morata, J. A. Hernando, Herrero-Gómez, P., Herrero, V., Carrete, C. Hervés, Ho, P., Ifergan, Y., Kellerer, F., Larizgoitia, L., Larumbe, A., Lebrun, P., Lopez, F., López-March, N., Mano, R. D. P., Marques, A. P., Martín-Albo, J., Martínez-Lema, G., Martínez-Vara, M., Mistry, K., Molina-Canteras, J., Monrabal, F., Monteiro, C. M. B., Mora, F. J., Novella, P., Nuñez, A., Oblak, E., Palacio, J., Palmeiro, B., Para, A., Parmaksiz, I., Pazos, A., Pelegrin, J., Maneiro, M. Pérez, Querol, M., Redwine, A. B., Renner, J., Rivilla, I., Rogero, C., Rogers, L., Romeo, B., Romo-Luque, C., Santos, F. P., Santos, J. M. F. dos, Seemann, M., Shomroni, I., Silva, P. A. O. C., Simón, A., Soleti, S. R., Sorel, M., Soto-Oton, J., Teixeira, J. M. R., Teruel-Pardo, S., Toledo, J. F., Tonnelé, C., Torrent, J., Trettin, A., Usón, A., Valle, P. R. G., Veloso, J. F. C. A., Waiton, J., and Yubero-Navarro, A.
Subjects: Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, High Energy Physics - Experiment, Nuclear Experiment
Abstract: The imaging of individual Ba$^{2+}$ ions in high pressure xenon gas is one possible way to attain background-free sensitivity to neutrinoless double beta decay and hence establish the Majorana nature of the neutrino. In this paper we demonstrate selective single Ba$^{2+}$ ion imaging inside a high-pressure xenon gas environment. Ba$^{2+}$ ions chelated with molecular chemosensors are resolved at the gas-solid interface using a diffraction-limited imaging system with scan area of 1$\times$1~cm$^2$ located inside 10~bar of xenon gas. This new form of microscopy represents an important enabling step in the development of barium tagging for neutrinoless double beta decay searches in $^{136}$Xe, as well as a new tool for studying the photophysics of fluorescent molecules and chemosensors at the solid-gas interface.
Published: 2024

4. Design, characterization and installation of the NEXT-100 cathode and electroluminescence regions

Author: NEXT Collaboration, Mistry, K., Rogers, L., Jones, B. J. P., Munson, B., Norman, L., Adams, C., Almazán, H., Álvarez, V., Aparicio, B., Aranburu, A. I., Arazi, L., Arnquist, I. J., Auria-Luna, F., Ayet, S., Azevedo, C. D. R., Bailey, K., Ballester, F., del Barrio-Torregrosa, M., Bayo, A., Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., Borges, F. I. G. M., Brodolin, A., Byrnes, N., Cárcel, S., Castillo, A., Cebrián, S., Church, E., Cid, L., Conde, C. A. N., Contreras, T., Cossío, F. P., Dey, E., Díaz, G., Dickel, T., Echevarria, C., Elorza, M., Escada, J., Esteve, R., Felkai, R., Fernandes, L. M. P., Ferrario, P., Ferreira, A. L., Foss, F. W., Freitas, E. D. C., Freixa, Z., Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., González, R., Grocott, J. W. R., Guenette, R., Hafidi, K., Hauptman, J., Henriques, C. A. O., Hernando~Morata, J. A., Herrero-Gómez, P., Herrero, V., Carrete, C. Hervés, Ifergan, Y., Larizgoitia, L., Larumbe, A., Lebrun, P., Lopez, F., López-March, N., Madigan, R., Mano, R. D. P., Marques, A. P., Martín-Albo, J., Martínez-Lema, G., Martínez-Vara, M., Meziani, Z. E., Miller, R. L., Molina-Canteras, J., Monrabal, F., Monteiro, C. M. B., Mora, F. J., Navarro, K. E., Novella, P., Nuñez, A., Nygren, D. R., Oblak, E., Oliver, D., Palacio, J., Palmeiro, B., Para, A., Parmaksiz, I., Pelegrin, J., Maneiro, M. Pérez, Querol, M., Redwine, A. B., Renner, J., Rivilla, I., Rogero, C., Romeo, B., Romo-Luque, C., Santos, F. P., Santos, J. M. F. dos, Seemann, M., Shomroni, I., Simón, A., Soleti, S. R., Sorel, M., Soto-Oton, J., Teixeira, J. M. R., Toledo, J. F., Torrent, J., Trettin, A., Usón, A., Veloso, J. F. C. A., Waiton, J., and Yubero, A.
Subjects: Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors
Abstract: NEXT-100 is currently being constructed at the Laboratorio Subterr\'aneo de Canfranc in the Spanish Pyrenees and will search for neutrinoless double beta decay using a high-pressure gaseous time projection chamber (TPC) with 100 kg of xenon. Charge amplification is carried out via electroluminescence (EL) which is the process of accelerating electrons in a high electric field region causing secondary scintillation of the medium proportional to the initial charge. The NEXT-100 EL and cathode regions are made from tensioned hexagonal meshes of 1 m diameter. This paper describes the design, characterization, and installation of these parts for NEXT-100. Simulations of the electric field are performed to model the drift and amplification of ionization electrons produced in the detector under various EL region alignments and rotations. Measurements of the electrostatic breakdown voltage in air characterize performance under high voltage conditions and identify breakdown points. The electrostatic deflection of the mesh is quantified and fit to a first-principles mechanical model. Measurements were performed with both a standalone test EL region and with the NEXT-100 EL region before its installation in the detector. Finally, we describe the parts as installed in NEXT-100, following their deployment in Summer 2023., Comment: 35 pages, 25 Figures, update includes accepted version in JINST
Published: 2023
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5. Demonstration of neutrinoless double beta decay searches in gaseous xenon with NEXT

Author: NEXT Collaboration, Novella, P., Sorel, M., Usón, A., Adams, C., Almazán, H., Álvarez, V., Aparicio, B., Aranburu, A. I., Arazi, L., Arnquist, I. J., Auria-Luna, F., Ayet, S., Azevedo, C. D. R., Bailey, K., Ballester, F., del Barrio-Torregrosa, M., Bayo, A., Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., Borges, F. I. G. M., Bounasser, S., Byrnes, N., Cárcel, S., Carrión, J. V., Cebrián, S., Church, E., Cid, L., Conde, C. A. N., Contreras, T., Cossío, F. P., Dey, E., Díaz, G., Dickel, T., Elorza, M., Escada, J., Esteve, R., Fahs, A., Felkai, R., Fernandes, L. M. P., Ferrario, P., Ferreira, A. L., Foss, F. W., Freitas, E. D. C., Freixa, Z., Generowicz, J., Goldschmidt, A., Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., González, R., Grocott, J., Guenette, R., Haefner, J., Hafidi, K., Hauptman, J., Henriques, C. A. O., Morata, J. A. Hernando, Herrero-Gómez, P., Herrero, V., Carrete, C. Hervés, Ho, J., Ho, P., Ifergan, Y., Jones, B. J. P., Labarga, L., Larizgoitia, L., Larumbe, A., Lebrun, P., Lopez, F., Gutierrez, D. Lopez, López-March, N., Madigan, R., Mano, R. D. P., Marques, A. P., Martín-Albo, J., Martínez-Lema, G., Martínez-Vara, M., Meziani, Z. E., Miller, R. L., Mistry, K., Molina-Canteras, J., Monrabal, F., Monteiro, C. M. B., Mora, F. J., Vidal, J. Muñoz, Navarro, K. E., Nuñez, A., Nygren, D. R., Oblak, E., Odriozola-Gimeno, M., Palacio, J., Palmeiro, B., Para, A., Parmaksiz, I., Pelegrin, J., Maneiro, M. Pérez, Querol, M., Redwine, A. B., Renner, J., Rivilla, I., Rodríguez, J., Rogero, C., Rogers, L., Romeo, B., Romo-Luque, C., Santos, F. P., Santos, J. M. F. dos, Simón, A., Soleti, S. R., Stanford, C., Teixeira, J. M. R., Toledo, J. F., Torrent, J., Veloso, J. F. C. A., Vuong, T. T., Waiton, J., and White, J. T.
Subjects: Nuclear Experiment, High Energy Physics - Experiment, Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors
Abstract: The NEXT experiment aims at the sensitive search of the neutrinoless double beta decay in $^{136}$Xe, using high-pressure gas electroluminescent time projection chambers. The NEXT-White detector is the first radiopure demonstrator of this technology, operated in the Laboratorio Subterr\'aneo de Canfranc. Achieving an energy resolution of 1% FWHM at 2.6 MeV and further background rejection by means of the topology of the reconstructed tracks, NEXT-White has been exploited beyond its original goals in order to perform a neutrinoless double beta decay search. The analysis considers the combination of 271.6 days of $^{136}$Xe-enriched data and 208.9 days of $^{136}$Xe-depleted data. A detailed background modeling and measurement has been developed, ensuring the time stability of the radiogenic and cosmogenic contributions across both data samples. Limits to the neutrinoless mode are obtained in two alternative analyses: a background-model-dependent approach and a novel direct background-subtraction technique, offering results with small dependence on the background model assumptions. With a fiducial mass of only 3.50$\pm$0.01 kg of $^{136}$Xe-enriched xenon, 90% C.L. lower limits to the neutrinoless double beta decay are found in the T$_{1/2}^{0\nu}>5.5\times10^{23}-1.3\times10^{24}$ yr range, depending on the method. The presented techniques stand as a proof-of-concept for the searches to be implemented with larger NEXT detectors.
Published: 2023
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6. NEXT-CRAB-0: A High Pressure Gaseous Xenon Time Projection Chamber with a Direct VUV Camera Based Readout

Author: NEXT Collaboration, Byrnes, N. K., Parmaksiz, I., Adams, C., Asaadi, J., Baeza-Rubio, J, Bailey, K., Church, E., González-Díaz, D., Higley, A., Jones, B. J. P., Mistry, K., Moya, I. A., Nygren, D. R., Oyedele, P., Rogers, L., Stogsdill, K., Almazán, H., Álvarez, V., Aparicio, B., Aranburu, A. I., Arazi, L., Arnquist, I. J., Ayet, S., Azevedo, C. D. R., Ballester, F., del Barrio-Torregrosa, M., Bayo, A., Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., Borges, F. I. G. M., Bounasser, S., Cárcel, S., Carrión, J. V., Cebrián, S., Cid, L., Conde, C. A. N., Contreras, T., Cossío, F. P., Dey, E., Díaz, G., Dickel, T., Elorza, M., Escada, J., Esteve, R., Fahs, A., Felkai, R., Fernandes, L. M. P., Ferrario, P., Ferreira, A. L., Foss, F. W., Freitas, E. D. C., Freixa, Z., Generowicz, J., Goldschmidt, A., Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., González, R., Grocott, J., Guenette, R., Haefner, J., Hafidi, K., Hauptman, J., Henriques, C. A. O., Morata, J. A. Hernando, Herrero-Gómez, P., Herrero, V., Carrete, C. Hervés, Ho, J., Ho, P., Ifergan, Y., Labarga, L., Larizgoitia, L., Lebrun, P., Lopez, F, Gutierrez, D. Lopez, López-March, N., Madigan, R., Mano, R. D. P., Marques, A. P., Martín-Albo, J., Martínez-Lema, G., Martínez-Vara, M., Meziani, Z. E., Miller, R. L., Monrabal, F., Monteiro, C. M. B., Mora, F. J., Vidal, J. Muñoz, Navarro, K. E., Novella, P., Nuñez, A., Oblak, E., Odriozola-Gimeno, M., Palacio, J., Palmeiro, B., Para, A., Pelegrin, J, Maneiro, M. Pérez, Querol, M., Redwine, A. B., Renner, J., Rivilla, I., Rodríguez, J., Rogero, C., Romeo, B., Romo-Luque, C., Santos, F. P., Santos, J. M. F. dos, Simón, A., Soleti, S. R., Sorel, M., Stanford, C., Teixeira, J. M. R., Toledo, J. F., Torrent, J., Usón, A., Veloso, J. F. C. A., Vuong, T. T., Waiton, J., and White, J. T.
Subjects: Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors
Abstract: The search for neutrinoless double beta decay ($0\nu\beta\beta$) remains one of the most compelling experimental avenues for the discovery in the neutrino sector. Electroluminescent gas-phase time projection chambers are well suited to $0\nu\beta\beta$ searches due to their intrinsically precise energy resolution and topological event identification capabilities. Scalability to ton- and multi-ton masses requires readout of large-area electroluminescent regions with fine spatial resolution, low radiogenic backgrounds, and a scalable data acquisition system. This paper presents a detector prototype that records event topology in an electroluminescent xenon gas TPC via VUV image-intensified cameras. This enables an extendable readout of large tracking planes with commercial devices that reside almost entirely outside of the active medium.Following further development in intermediate scale demonstrators, this technique may represent a novel and enlargeable method for topological event imaging in $0\nu\beta\beta$., Comment: 30 Pages, 22 figures, Updated to match current JINST submission
Published: 2023

7. A Compact Dication Source for Ba$^{2+}$ Tagging and Heavy Metal Ion Sensor Development

Author: Navarro, K. E., Jones, B. J. P., Baeza-Rubio, J., Boyd, M., Denisenko, A. A., Foss, F. W., Giri, S., Miller, R., Nygren, D. R., Tiscareno, M. R., Samaniego, F. J., Stogsdill, K., Adams, C., Almazán, H., Álvarez, V., Aparicio, B., Aranburu, A. I., Arazi, L., Arnquist, I. J., Ayet, S., Azevedo, C. D. R., Bailey, K., Ballester, F., Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., Borges, F. I. G. M., Bounasser, S., Byrnes, N., Cárcel, S., Carrión, J. V., Cebrián, S., Church, E., Conde, C. A. N., Contreras, T., Cossío, F. P., Dey, E., Díaz, G., Dickel, T., Escada, J., Esteve, R., Fahs, A., Felkai, R., Fernandes, L. M. P., Ferrario, P., Ferreira, A. L., Freitas, E. D. C., Freixa, Z., Generowicz, J., Goldschmidt, A., Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., González, R., Grocott, J., Guenette, R., Haefner, J., Hafidi, K., Hauptman, J., Henriques, C. A. O., Morata, J. A. Hernando, Herrero-Gómez, P., Herrero, V., Carrete, C. Hervés, Ho, J., Ho, P., Ifergan, Y., Labarga, L., Larizgoitia, L., Lebrun, P., Gutierrez, D. Lopez, López-March, N., Madigan, R., Mano, R. D. P., Marques, A. P., Martín-Albo, J., Martínez-Lema, G., Martínez-Vara, M., Meziani, Z. E., Mistry, K., Monrabal, F., Monteiro, C. M. B., Mora, F. J., Vidal, J. Muñoz, Novella, P., Nuñez, A., Oblak, E., Odriozola-Gimeno, M., Palmeiro, B., Para, A., Pelegrín, J., Maneiro, M. Pérez, Querol, M., Redwine, A. B., Renner, J., Rivilla, I., Rodríguez, J., Rogero, C., Rogers, L., Romeo, B., Romo-Luque, C., Santos, F. P., Santos, J. M. F. dos, Simón, A., Sorel, M., Stanford, C., Teixeira, J. M. R., Toledo, J. F., Torrent, J., Usón, A., Veloso, J. F. C. A., Vuong, T. T., Waiton, J., and White, J. T.
Subjects: Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, High Energy Physics - Experiment, Nuclear Experiment
Abstract: We present a tunable metal ion beam that delivers controllable ion currents in the picoamp range for testing of dry-phase ion sensors. Ion beams are formed by sequential atomic evaporation and single or multiple electron impact ionization, followed by acceleration into a sensing region. Controllability of the ionic charge state is achieved through tuning of electrode potentials that influence the retention time in the ionization region. Barium, lead, and cobalt samples have been used to test the system, with ion currents identified and quantified using a quadrupole mass analyzer. Realization of a clean $\mathrm{Ba^{2+}}$ ion beam within a bench-top system represents an important technical advance toward the development and characterization of barium tagging systems for neutrinoless double beta decay searches in xenon gas. This system also provides a testbed for investigation of novel ion sensing methodologies for environmental assay applications, with dication beams of Pb$^{2+}$ and Cd$^{2+}$ also demonstrated for this purpose.
Published: 2023
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8. Reflectance and fluorescence characteristics of PTFE coated with TPB at visible, UV, and VUV as a function of thickness

Author: Haefner, J., Fahs, A., Ho, J., Stanford, C., Guenette, R., Adams, C., Almazán, H., Álvarez, V., Aparicio, B., Aranburu, A. I., Arazi, L., Arnquist, I. J., Auria-Luna, F., Ayet, S., Azevedo, C. D. R., Bailey, K., Ballester, F., Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., Borges, F. I. G. M., Bounasser, S., Byrnes, N., Cárcel, S., Carrión, J. V., Cebrián, S., Church, E., Conde, C. A. N., Contreras, T., Cossío, F. P., Denisenko, A. A., Dey, E., Díaz, G., Dickel, T., Escada, J., Esteve, R., Felkai, R., Fernandes, L. M. P., Ferrario, P., Ferreira, A. L., Foss, F. W., Freitas, E. D. C., Freixa, Z., Generowicz, J., Goldschmidt, A., Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., González, R., Grocott, J., Hafidi, K., Hauptman, J., Henriques, C. A. O., Morata, J. A. Hernando, Herrero-Gómez, P., Herrero, V., Ho, P., Ifergan, Y., Jones, B. J. P., Kekic, M., Labarga, L., Larizgoitia, L., Lebrun, P., Gutierrez, D. Lopez, López-March, N., Madigan, R., Mano, R. D. P., Martín-Albo, J., Martínez-Lema, G., Martínez-Vara, M., Marques, A. P., Meziani, Z. E., Miller, R., Mistry, K., Molina-Canteras, J., Monrabal, F., Monteiro, C. M. B., Mora, F. J., Vidal, J. Muñoz, Navarro, K., Novella, P., Nuñez, A., Nygren, D. R., Oblak, E., Odriozola-Gimeno, M., Palmeiro, B., Para, A., Querol, M., Redwine, A. B., Renner, J., Rivilla, I., Rodríguez, J., Rogero, C., Rogers, L., Romeo, B., Romo-Luque, C., Santos, F. P., Santos, J. M. F. dos, Simón, A., Sorel, M., Teixeira, J. M. R., Toledo, J. F., Torrent, J., Usón, A., Veloso, J. F. C. A., Vuong, T. T., and Waiton, J.
Subjects: Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, High Energy Physics - Experiment, Physics - Optics
Abstract: Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) is an excellent diffuse reflector widely used in light collection systems for particle physics experiments. In noble element systems, it is often coated with tetraphenyl butadiene (TPB) to allow detection of vacuum ultraviolet scintillation light. In this work this dependence is investigated for PTFE coated with TPB in air for light of wavelengths of 200~nm, 260~nm, and 450~nm. The results show that TPB-coated PTFE has a reflectance of approximately 92\% for thicknesses ranging from 5~mm to 10~mm at 450~nm, with negligible variation as a function of thickness within this range. A cross-check of these results using an argon chamber supports the conclusion that the change in thickness from 5~mm to 10~mm does not affect significantly the light response at 128~nm. Our results indicate that pieces of TPB-coated PTFE thinner than the typical 10~mm can be used in particle physics detectors without compromising the light signal.
Published: 2022
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9. Measurement of the scintillation resolution in liquid xenon and its impact for future segmented calorimeters

Author: Romo-Luque, C., Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., Herrero-Bosch, V., Salor-Iguiñiz, N., Aliaga, R. J., Álvarez, V., Ballester, F., Esteve, R., Gadea, R., Generowicz, J., Laing, A., Monrabal, F., Querol, M., Rappaport, M., Rodríguez, J., Rodríguez-Ponce, J., Teruel-Pardo, S., Toledo, J. F., Torres-Curado, R., Ferrario, P., and Gómez-Cadenas, J. J.
Subjects: Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, High Energy Physics - Experiment
Abstract: We report on a new measurement of the energy resolution that can be attained in liquid xenon when recording only the scintillation light. Our setup is optimised to maximise light collection, and uses state-of-the-art, high-PDE, VUV-sensitive silicon photomultipliers. We find a value of 4.2% +- 0.2% FWHM at 511 keV, a result much better than previous measurements and close to the Poissonian resolution that we expect in our setup (5.4% +- 0.8% FWHM at 511 keV). Our results are compatible with a null value of the intrinsic energy resolution in liquid xenon, with an upper bound of 0.4% FWHM at 95% CL at 511 keV, to be compared with 3--4% FWHM in the same region found by theoretical estimations which have been standing for the last twenty years. Our work opens new possibilities for apparatus based on liquid xenon and using scintillation only. In particular it suggests that modular scintillation detectors using liquid xenon can be very competitive as building blocks in segmented calorimeters, with applications to nuclear and particle physics as well as Positron Emission Tomography technology.
Published: 2022

10. Neutral Bremsstrahlung emission in xenon unveiled

Author: Henriques, C. A. O., Amedo, P., Teixeira, J. M. R., Gonzalez-Diaz, D., Azevedo, C. D. R., Para, A., Martin-Albo, J., Hernandez, A. Saa, Gomez-Cadenas, J. J., Nygren, D. R., Monteiro, C. M. B., Adams, C., Alvarez, V., Arazi, L., Arnquist, I. J., Bailey, K., Ballester, F., Benlloch-Rodriguez, J. M., Borges, F. I. G. M., Byrnes, N., Carcel, S., Carrion, J. V., Cebrian, S., Church, E., Conde, C. A. N., Contreras, T., Diaz, G., Diaz, J., Diesburg, M., Escada, J., Esteve, R., Felkai, R., Fernandes, A. F. M., Fernandes, L. M. P., Ferrario, P., Ferreira, A. L., Freitas, E. D. C., Generowicz, J., Ghosh, S., Goldschmidt, A., Guenette, R., Gutierrez, R. M., Haefner, J., Hafidi, K., Hauptman, J., Morata, J. A. Hernando, Herrero, P., Herrero, V., Ifergan, Y., Jones, B. J. P., Kekic, M., Labarga, L., Laing, A., Lebrun, P., Lopez-March, N., Losada, M., Mano, R. D. P., Martinez, A., Martinez-Vara, M., Martinez-Lema, G., McDonald, A. D., Monrabal, F., Mora, F. J., Vidal, J. Munoz, Novella, P., Palmeiro, B., Perez, J., Querol, M., Redwine, A. B., Renner, J., Repond, J., Riordan, S., Ripoll, L., Garcia, Y. Rodriguez, Rodriguez, J., Rogers, L., Romeo, B., Romo-Luque, C., Santos, F. P., Santos, J. M. F. dos, Simon, A., Sofka, C., Sorel, M., Stiegler, T., Toledo, J. F., Torrent, J., Uson, A., Veloso, J. F. C. A., Webb, R., Weiss-Babai, R., White, J. T., Woodruff, K., and Yahlali, N.
Subjects: Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Physics - Atomic Physics
Abstract: We present evidence of non-excimer-based secondary scintillation in gaseous xenon, obtained using both the NEXT-White TPC and a dedicated setup. Detailed comparison with first-principle calculations allows us to assign this scintillation mechanism to neutral bremsstrahlung (NBrS), a process that has been postulated to exist in xenon that has been largely overlooked. For photon emission below 1000 nm, the NBrS yield increases from about 10$^{-2}$ photon/e$^{-}$ cm$^{-1}$ bar$^{-1}$ at pressure-reduced electric field values of 50 V cm$^{-1}$ bar$^{-1}$ to above 3$\times$10$^{-1}$ photon/e$^{-}$ cm$^{-1}$ bar$^{-1}$ at 500 V cm$^{-1}$ bar$^{-1}$. Above 1.5 kV cm$^{-1}$ bar$^{-1}$, values that are typically employed for electroluminescence, it is estimated that NBrS is present with an intensity around 1 photon/e$^{-}$ cm$^{-1}$ bar$^{-1}$, which is about two orders of magnitude lower than conventional, excimer-based electroluminescence. Despite being fainter than its excimeric counterpart, our calculations reveal that NBrS causes luminous backgrounds that can interfere, in either gas or liquid phase, with the ability to distinguish and/or to precisely measure low primary-scintillation signals (S1). In particular, we show this to be the case in the "buffer" and "veto" regions, where keeping the electric field below the electroluminescence (EL) threshold will not suffice to extinguish secondary scintillation. The electric field in these regions should be chosen carefully to avoid intolerable levels of NBrS emission. Furthermore, we show that this new source of light emission opens up a viable path towards obtaining S2 signals for discrimination purposes in future single-phase liquid TPCs for neutrino and dark matter physics, with estimated yields up to 20-50 photons/e$^{-}$ cm$^{-1}$., Comment: Published in Physical Review X
Published: 2022
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11. Ba$^{2+}$ ion trapping by organic submonolayer: towards an ultra-low background neutrinoless double beta decay detector

Author: Herrero-Gómez, P., Calupitan, J. P., Ilyn, M., Berdonces-Layunta, A., Wang, T., de Oteyza, D. G., Corso, M., González-Moreno, R., Rivilla, I., Aparicio, B., Aranburu, A. I., Freixa, Z., Monrabal, F., Cossío, F. P., Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., Rogero, C., Adams, C., Almazán, H., Alvarez, V., Arazi, L., Arnquist, I. J., Ayet, S., Azevedo, C. D. R., Bailey, K., Ballester, F., Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., Borges, F. I. G. M., Bounasser, S., Byrnes, N., Cárcel, S., Carrión, J. V., Cebrián, S., Church, E., Conde, C. A. N., Contreras, T., Denisenko, A. A., Díaz, G., Díaz, J., Dickel, T., Escada, J., Esteve, R., Fahs, A., Felkai, R., Fernandes, L. M. P., Ferrario, P., Ferreira, A. L., Foss, F. W., Freitas, E. D. C., Generowicz, J., Goldschmidt, A., González-Díaz, D., Guenette, R., Gutiérrez, R. M., Haefner, J., Hafidi, K., Hauptman, J., Henriques, C. A. O., Morata, J. A. Hernando, Herrero, V., Ho, J., Ifergan, Y., Jones, B. J. P., Kekic, M., Labarga, L., Laing, A., Larizgoitia, L., Lebrun, P., Gutierrez, D. Lopez, López-March, N., Losada, M., Mano, R. D. P., Martín-Albo, J., Martínez, A., Martínez-Lema, G., Martínez-Vara, M., McDonald, A. D., Meziani, Z. E., Mistry, K., Monteiro, C. M. B., Mora, F. J., Vidal, J. Muñoz, Navarro, K., Novella, P., Nygren, D. R., Oblak, E., Odriozola-Gimeno, M., Palmeiro, B., Para, A., Pérez, J., Querol, M., Raymond, A., Redwine, A. B., Renner, J., Ripoll, L., García, Y. Rodríguez, Rodríguez, J., Rogers, L., Romeo, B., Romo-Luque, C., Santos, F. P., Santos, J. M. F. dos, Simón, A., Sorel, M., Stanford, C., Teixeira, J. M. R., Thapa, P., Toledo, J. F., Torrent, J., Usón, A., Veloso, J. F. C. A., Vuong, T. T., Webb, R., White, J. T., Woodruff, K., and Yahlali, N.
Subjects: High Energy Physics - Experiment, Condensed Matter - Materials Science, Physics - Chemical Physics
Abstract: If neutrinos are their own antiparticles, the otherwise-forbidden nuclear reaction known as neutrinoless double beta decay ($\beta\beta 0\nu$) can occur, with a characteristic lifetime which is expected to be very long, making the suppression of backgrounds a daunting task. It has been shown that detecting (``tagging'') the Ba$^{+2}$ dication produced in the double beta decay ${}^{136}\mathrm{Xe} \rightarrow {}^{136}$Ba$^{+2}+ 2 e + (2 \nu)$ in a high pressure gas experiment, could lead to a virtually background free experiment. To identify these \Bapp, chemical sensors are being explored as a key tool by the NEXT collaboration . Although used in many fields, the application of such chemosensors to the field of particle physics is totally novel and requires experimental demonstration of their suitability in the ultra-dry environment of a xenon gas chamber. Here we use a combination of complementary surface science techniques to unambiguously show that Ba$^{+2}$ ions can be trapped (chelated) in vacuum by an organic molecule, the so-called fluorescent bicolour indicator (FBI) (one of the chemosensors developed by NEXT), immobilized on a surface. We unravel the ion capture mechanism once the molecules are immobilised on Au(111) surface and explain the origin of the emission fluorescence shift associated to the trapping of different ions. Moreover, we prove that chelation also takes place on a technologically relevant substrate, as such, demonstrating the feasibility of using FBI indicators as building blocks of a Ba$^{+2}$ detector.
Published: 2022
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12. Measurement of the ${}^{136}$Xe two-neutrino double beta decay half-life via direct background subtraction in NEXT

Author: NEXT Collaboration, Novella, P., Sorel, M., Usón, A., Adams, C., Almazán, H., Álvarez, V., Aparicio, B., Aranburu, A. I., Arazi, L., Arnquist, I. J., Ayet, S., Azevedo, C. D. R., Bailey, K., Ballester, F., Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., Borges, F. I. G. M., Bounasser, S., Byrnes, N., Cárcel, S., Carrión, J. V., Cebrián, S., Church, E., Conde, C. A. N., Contreras, T., Cossío, F. P., Denisenko, A. A., Díaz, G., Díaz, J., Dickel, T., Escada, J., Esteve, R., Fahs, A., Felkai, R., Fernandes, L. M. P., Ferrario, P., Ferreira, A. L., Foss, F. W., Freitas, E. D. C., Freixa, Z., Generowicz, J., Goldschmidt, A., Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., González, R., González-Díaz, D., Guenette, R., Gutiérrez, R. M., Haefner, J., Hafidi, K., Hauptman, J., Henriques, C. A. O., Morata, J. A. Hernando, Herrero-Gómez, P., Herrero, V., Ho, J., Ifergan, Y., Jones, B. J. P., Kekic, M., Labarga, L., Laing, A., Larizgoitia, L., Lebrun, P., Gutierrez, D. Lopez, López-March, N., Losada, M., Mano, R. D. P., Martín-Albo, J., Martínez, A., Martínez-Lema, G., Martínez-Vara, M., McDonald, A. D., Meziani, Z. E., Mistry, K., Monrabal, F., Monteiro, C. M. B., Mora, F. J., Vidal, J. Muñoz, Navarro, K., Nygren, D. R., Oblak, E., Odriozola-Gimeno, M., Palmeiro, B., Para, A., Pérez, J., Querol, M., Raymond, A., Redwine, A. B., Renner, J., Ripoll, L., Rivilla, I., García, Y. Rodríguez, Rodríguez, J., Rogero, C., Rogers, L., Romeo, B., Romo-Luque, C., Santos, F. P., Santos, J. M. F. dos, Simón, A., Stanford, C., Teixeira, J. M. R., Thapa, P., Toledo, J. F., Torrent, J., Veloso, J. F. C. A., Vuong, T. T., Webb, R., White, J. T., Woodruff, K., and Yahlali, N.
Subjects: Nuclear Experiment, High Energy Physics - Experiment, Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors
Abstract: We report a measurement of the half-life of the ${}^{136}$Xe two-neutrino double beta decay performed with a novel direct background subtraction technique. The analysis relies on the data collected with the NEXT-White detector operated with ${}^{136}$Xe-enriched and ${}^{136}$Xe-depleted xenon, as well as on the topology of double-electron tracks. With a fiducial mass of only 3.5 kg of Xe, a half-life of $2.34^{+0.80}_{-0.46}\textrm{(stat)}^{+0.30}_{-0.17}\textrm{(sys)}\times10^{21}~\textrm{yr}$ is derived from the background-subtracted energy spectrum. The presented technique demonstrates the feasibility of unique background-model-independent neutrinoless double beta decay searches., Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, and 1 appendix
Published: 2021
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13. Monte Carlo characterization of PETALO, a full-body liquid xenon-based PET detector

Author: Renner, J., Romo-Luque, C., Aliaga, R. J., Álvarez, V., Ballester, F., Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., Carrión, J. V., Cubero, D., Díaz, J., Esteve, R., Gadea, R., Gillam, J., Generowicz, J., López-Gómez, J. L., Martínez, A., Monrabal, F., Querol, M., Rappaport, M., Rodríguez, J., Rodríguez-Ponce, J., Solevi, P., Teruel-Pardo, S., Toledo, J. F., Torres-Curado, R., Herrero-Bosch, V., Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., and Ferrario, P.
Subjects: Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, Physics - Medical Physics
Abstract: New detector approaches in Positron Emission Tomography imaging will play an important role in reducing costs, lowering administered radiation doses, and improving overall performance. PETALO employs liquid xenon as the active scintillating medium and UV-sensitive silicon photomultipliers for scintillation readout. The scintillation time in liquid xenon is fast enough to register time-of-flight information for each detected coincidence, and sufficient scintillation is produced with low enough fluctuations to obtain good energy resolution. The present simulation study examines a full-body-sized PETALO detector and evaluates its potential performance in PET image reconstruction.
Published: 2021
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14. The Dynamics of Ions on Phased Radio-frequency Carpets in High Pressure Gases and Application for Barium Tagging in Xenon Gas Time Projection Chambers

Author: NEXT Collaboration, Jones, B. J. P., Raymond, A., Woodruff, K., Byrnes, N., Denisenko, A. A., Foss, F. W., Navarro, K., Nygren, D. R., Vuong, T. T., Adams, C., Almazán, H., Álvarez, V., Aparicio, B., Aranburu, A. I., Arazi, L., Arnquist, I. J., Ayet, S., Azevedo, C. D. R., Bailey, K., Ballester, F., Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., Borges, F. I. G. M., Bounasser, S., Cárcel, S., Carrión, J. V., Cebrián, S., Church, E., Conde, C. A. N., Contreras, T., Cossío, F. P., Díaz, G., Díaz, J., Dickel, T., Escada, J., Esteve, R., Fahs, A., Felkai, R., Fernandes, L. M. P., Ferrario, P., Ferreira, A. L., Freitas, E. D. C., Freixa, Z, Generowicz, J., Goldschmidt, A., Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., González, R., González-Díaz, D., Guenette, R., Gutiérrez, R. M., Haefner, J., Hafidi, K., Hauptman, J., Henriques, C. A. O., Hernando~Morata, J. A., Herrero-Gómez, P., Herrero, V., Ho, J., Ifergan, Y., Kekic, M., Labarga, L., Laing, A., Lebrun, P., Gutierrez, D. Lopez, López-March, N., Losada, M., Mano, R. D. P., Martín-Albo, J., Martínez, A., Martínez-Lema, G., Martínez-Vara, M., McDonald, A. D., Meziani, Z. E., Mistry, K., Monrabal, F., Monteiro, C. M. B., Mora, F. J., Vidal, J. Muñoz, Novella, P., Oblak, E., Odriozola-Gimeno, M., Palmeiro, B., Para, A., Pérez, J., Querol, M., Redwine, A. B., Renner, J., Ripoll, L., Rivilla, I., García, Y. Rodríguez, Rodríguez, J., Rogero, C., Rogers, L., Romeo, B., Romo-Luque, C., Santos, F. P., Santos, J. M. F. dos, Simón, A., Sorel, M., Stanford, C., Teixeira, J. M. R., Thapa, P., Toledo, J. F., Torrent, J., Usón, A., Veloso, J. F. C. A., Webb, R., Weiss-Babai, R., White, J. T., and Yahlali, N.
Subjects: Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, Nuclear Experiment
Abstract: Radio-frequency (RF) carpets with ultra-fine pitches are examined for ion transport in gases at atmospheric pressures and above. We develop new analytic and computational methods for modeling RF ion transport at densities where dynamics are strongly influenced by buffer gas collisions. An analytic description of levitating and sweeping forces from phased arrays is obtained, then thermodynamic and kinetic principles are used to calculate ion loss rates in the presence of collisions. This methodology is validated against detailed microscopic SIMION simulations. We then explore a parameter space of special interest for neutrinoless double beta decay experiments: transport of barium ions in xenon at pressures from 1 to 10 bar. Our computations account for molecular ion formation and pressure dependent mobility as well as finite temperature effects. We discuss the challenges associated with achieving suitable operating conditions, which lie beyond the capabilities of existing devices, using presently available or near-future manufacturing techniques., Comment: 26 pages, 16 figures v2: author list update and pre-journal submission adjustments
Published: 2021

15. Boosting background suppression in the NEXT experiment through Richardson-Lucy deconvolution

Author: Simón, A., Ifergan, Y., Redwine, A. B., Weiss-Babai, R., Arazi, L., Adams, C., Almazán, H., Álvarez, V., Aparicio, B., Aranburu, A. I., Arnquist, I. J., Azevedo, C. D. R, Bailey, K., Ballester, F., Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., Borges, F. I. G. M., Byrnes, N., Cárcel, S., Carrión, J. V., Cebrián, S., Church, E., Conde, C. A. N., Contreras, T., Cossío, F. P., Denisenko, A. A., Díaz, G., Díaz, J., Escada, J., Esteve, R., Felkai, R., Fernandes, L. M. P., Ferrario, P., Ferreira, A. L., Foss, F., Freitas, E. D. C., Freixa, Z., Generowicz, J., Goldschmidt, A., Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., González, R., González-Díaz, D., Gosh, S., Guenette, R., Gutiérrez, R. M., Haefner, J., Hafidi, K., Hauptman, J., Henriques, C. A. O., Morata, J. A. Hernando, Herrero, P., Herrero, V., Ho, J., Jones, B. J. P., Kekic, M., Labarga, L., Laing, A., Lebrun, P., López-March, N., Losada, M., Mano, R. D. P., Martín-Albo, J., Martínez, A., Martínez-Vara, M., Martínez-Lema, G., McDonald, A. D., Meziani, Z. -E., Monrabal, F., Monteiro, C. M. B., Mora, F. J., Vidal, J. Muñoz, Newhouse, C., Novella, P., Nygren, D. R., Oblak, E., Odriozola-Gimeno, M., Palmeiro, B., Para, A., Pérez, J., Querol, M., Renner, J., Ripoll, L., Rivilla, I., García, Y. Rodríguez, Rodríguez, J., Rogero, C., Rogers, L., Romeo, B., Romo-Luque, C., Santos, F. P., Santos, J. M. F. dos, Sorel, M., Stanford, C., Teixeira, J. M. R., Thapa, P., Toledo, J. F., Torrent, J., Usón, A., Veloso, J. F. C. A., Vuong, T. T., Webb, R., White, J. T., Woodruff, K., and Yahlali, N.
Subjects: Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, High Energy Physics - Experiment
Abstract: Next-generation neutrinoless double beta decay experiments aim for half-life sensitivities of ~$10^{27}$ yr, requiring suppressing backgrounds to <1 count/tonne/yr. For this, any extra background rejection handle, beyond excellent energy resolution and the use of extremely radiopure materials, is of utmost importance. The NEXT experiment exploits differences in the spatial ionization patterns of double beta decay and single-electron events to discriminate signal from background. While the former display two Bragg peak dense ionization regions at the opposite ends of the track, the latter typically have only one such feature. Thus, comparing the energies at the track extremes provides an additional rejection tool. The unique combination of the topology-based background discrimination and excellent energy resolution (1% FWHM at the Q-value of the decay) is the distinguishing feature of NEXT. Previous studies demonstrated a topological background rejection factor of ~5 when reconstructing electron-positron pairs in the $^{208}$Tl 1.6 MeV double escape peak (with Compton events as background), recorded in the NEXT-White demonstrator at the Laboratorio Subterr\'aneo de Canfranc, with 72% signal efficiency. This was recently improved through the use of a deep convolutional neural network to yield a background rejection factor of ~10 with 65% signal efficiency. Here, we present a new reconstruction method, based on the Richardson-Lucy deconvolution algorithm, which allows reversing the blurring induced by electron diffusion and electroluminescence light production in the NEXT TPC. The new method yields highly refined 3D images of reconstructed events, and, as a result, significantly improves the topological background discrimination. When applied to real-data 1.6 MeV $e^-e^+$ pairs, it leads to a background rejection factor of 27 at 57% signal efficiency., Comment: Submitted to JHEP
Published: 2021
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16. Demonstration of background rejection using deep convolutional neural networks in the NEXT experiment

Author: NEXT Collaboration, Kekic, M., Adams, C., Woodruff, K., Renner, J., Church, E., Del Tutto, M., Morata, J. A. Hernando, Gomez-Cadenas, J. J., Alvarez, V., Arazi, L., Arnquist, I. J., Azevedo, C. D. R, Bailey, K., Ballester, F., Benlloch-Rodriguez, J. M., Borges, F. I. G. M., Byrnes, N., Carcel, S., Carrion, J. V., Cebrian, S., Conde, C. A. N., Contreras, T., Diaz, G., Diaz, J., Diesburg, M., Escada, J., Esteve, R., Felkai, R., Fernandes, A. F. M., Fernandes, L. M. P., Ferrario, P., Ferreira, A. L., Freitas, E. D. C., Generowicz, J., Ghosh, S., Goldschmidt, A., Gonzalez-Diaz, D., Guenette, R., Gutierrez, R. M., Haefner, J., Hafidi, K., Hauptman, J., Henriques, C. A. O., Herrero, P., Herrero, V., Ifergan, Y., Jones, B. J. P., Labarga, L., Laing, A., Lebrun, P., Lopez-March, N., Losada, M., Mano, R. D. P., Martin-Albo, J., Martinez, A., Martinez-Lema, G., Martinez-Vara, M., McDonald, A. D., Meziani, Z. E., Monrabal, F., Monteiro, C. M. B., Mora, F. J., Vidal, J. Muñoz, Novella, P., Nygren, D. R., Palmeiro, B., Para, A., Perez, J., Querol, M., Redwine, A. B., Ripoll, L., Garcia, Y. Rodriguez, Rodriguez, J., Rogers, L., Romeo, B., Romo-Luque, C., Santos, F. P., Santos, J. M. F. dos, Simon, A., Sofka, C., Sorel, M., Stiegler, T., Toledo, J. F., Torrent, J., Uson, A., Veloso, J. F. C. A., Webb, R., Weiss-Babai, R., White, J. T., and Yahlali, N.
Subjects: Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, High Energy Physics - Experiment
Abstract: Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are widely used state-of-the-art computer vision tools that are becoming increasingly popular in high energy physics. In this paper, we attempt to understand the potential of CNNs for event classification in the NEXT experiment, which will search for neutrinoless double-beta decay in $^{136}$Xe. To do so, we demonstrate the usage of CNNs for the identification of electron-positron pair production events, which exhibit a topology similar to that of a neutrinoless double-beta decay event. These events were produced in the NEXT-White high-pressure xenon TPC using 2.6-MeV gamma rays from a $^{228}$Th calibration source. We train a network on Monte Carlo-simulated events and show that, by applying on-the-fly data augmentation, the network can be made robust against differences between simulation and data. The use of CNNs offer significant improvement in signal efficiency/background rejection when compared to previous non-CNN-based analyses., Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures; version matches published JHEP version
Published: 2020
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17. Dependence of polytetrafluoroethylene reflectance on thickness at visible and ultraviolet wavelengths in air

Author: Ghosh, S., Haefner, J., Martín-Albo, J., Guenette, R., Li, X., Villalpando, A. A. Loya, Burch, C., Adams, C., Álvarez, V., Arazi, L., Arnquist, I. J., Azevedo, C. D. R, Bailey, K., Ballester, F., Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., Borges, F. I. G. M., Byrnes, N., Cárcel, S., Carrión, J. V., Cebrián, S., Church, E., Conde, C. A. N., Contreras, T., Díaz, G., Díaz, J., Diesburg, M., Escada, J., Esteve, R., Felkai, R., Fernandes, A. F. M., Fernandes, L. M. P., Ferrario, P., Ferreira, A. L., Freitas, E. D. C., Goldschmidt, A., Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., González-Díaz, D., Gutiérrez, R. M., Hafidi, K., Hauptman, J., Henriques, C. A. O., Morata, J. A. Hernando, Herrero, P., Herrero, V., Ifergan, Y., Jones, B. J. P., Kekic, M., Labarga, L., Laing, A., Lebrun, P., López-March, N., Losada, M., Mano, R. D. P., Martínez, A., Martínez-Vara, M., Martínez-Lema, G., McDonald, A. D., Monrabal, F., Monteiro, C. M. B., Mora, F. J., Vidal, J. Muñoz, Novella, P., Nygren, D. R., Palmeiro, B., Para, A., Pérez, J., Querol, M., Redwine, A., Renner, J., Repond, J., Riordan, S., Ripoll, L., García, Y. Rodríguez, Rodríguez, J., Rogers, L., Romeo, B., Romo-Luque, C., Santos, F. P., Santos, J. M. F. dos, Simón, A., Sorel, M., Stiegler, T., Toledo, J. F., Torrent, J., Usón, A., Veloso, J. F. C. A., Webb, R., Weiss-Babai, R., White, J. T., Woodruff, K., and Yahlali, N.
Subjects: Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors
Abstract: Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) is an excellent diffuse reflector widely used in light collection systems for particle physics experiments. However, the reflectance of PTFE is a function of its thickness. In this work, we investigate this dependence in air for light of wavelengths 260 nm and 450 nm using two complementary methods. We find that PTFE reflectance for thicknesses from 5 mm to 10 mm ranges from 92.5% to 94.5% at 450 nm, and from 90.0% to 92.0% at 260 nm. We also see that the reflectance of PTFE of a given thickness can vary by as much as 2.7% within the same piece of material. Finally, we show that placing a specular reflector behind the PTFE can recover the loss of reflectance in the visible without introducing a specular component in the reflectance., Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures
Published: 2020
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18. Sensitivity of the NEXT experiment to Xe-124 double electron capture

Author: Martínez-Lema, G., Martínez-Vara, M., Sorel, M., Adams, C., Alvarez, V., Arazi, L., Arnquist, I. J., Azevedo, C. D. R, Bailey, K., Ballester, F., Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., Borges, F. I. G. M., Byrnes, N., Cárcel, S., Carrión, J. V., Cebrián, S., Church, E., Conde, C. A. N., Contreras, T., Díaz, G., Díaz, J., Diesburg, M., Escada, J., Esteve, R., Felkai, R., Fernandes, A. F. M., Fernandes, L. M. P., Ferrario, P., Ferreira, A. L., Freitas, E. D. C., Generowicz, J., Ghosh, S., Goldschmidt, A., Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., González-Díaz, D., Guenette, R., Gutiérrez, R. M., Haefner, J., Hafidi, K., Hauptman, J., Henriques, C. A. O., Morata, J. A. Hernando, Herrero, P., Herrero, V., Ifergan, Y., Johnston, S., Jones, B. J. P., Kekic, M., Labarga, L., Laing, A., Lebrun, P., López-March, N., Losada, M., Mano, R. D. P., Martín-Albo, J., Martínez, A., McDonald, A. D., Monrabal, F., Monteiro, C. M. B., Mora, F. J., Vidal, J. Muñoz, Novella, P., Nygren, D. R., Palmeiro, B., Para, A., Pérez, J., Querol, M., Redwine, A. B., Renner, J., Repond, J., Riordan, S., Ripoll, L., García, Y. Rodríguez, Rodríguez, J., Rogers, L., Romeo, B., Romo-Luque, C., Santos, F. P., Santos, J. M. F. dos, Simón, A., Sofka, C., Stiegler, T., Toledo, J. F., Torrent, J., Usón, A., Veloso, J. F. C. A., Webb, R., Weiss-Babai, R., White, J. T., Woodruff, K., and Yahlali, N.
Subjects: High Energy Physics - Experiment, Nuclear Experiment, Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors
Abstract: Double electron capture by proton-rich nuclei is a second-order nuclear process analogous to double beta decay. Despite their similarities, the decay signature is quite different, potentially providing a new channel to measure the hypothesized neutrinoless mode of these decays. The Standard-Model-allowed two-neutrino double electron capture ($2\nu ECEC$) has been predicted for a number of isotopes, but only observed in $^{78}$Kr, $^{130}$Ba and, recently, $^{124}$Xe. The sensitivity to this decay establishes a benchmark for the ultimate experimental goal, namely the potential to discover also the lepton-number-violating neutrinoless version of this process, $0\nu ECEC$. Here we report on the current sensitivity of the NEXT-White detector to $^{124}$Xe $2\nu ECEC$ and on the extrapolation to NEXT-100. Using simulated data for the $2\nu ECEC$ signal and real data from NEXT-White operated with $^{124}$Xe-depleted gas as background, we define an optimal event selection that maximizes the NEXT-White sensitivity. We estimate that, for NEXT-100 operated with xenon gas isotopically enriched with 1 kg of $^{124}$Xe and for a 5-year run, a sensitivity to the $2\nu ECEC$ half-life of $6 \times 10^{22}$ y (at 90% confidence level) or better can be reached., Comment: 23 pages, 13 figures
Published: 2020
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19. Sensitivity of a tonne-scale NEXT detector for neutrinoless double beta decay searches

Author: NEXT Collaboration, Adams, C., Álvarez, V., Arazi, L., Arnquist, I. J., Azevedo, C. D. R, Bailey, K., Ballester, F., Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., Borges, F. I. G. M., Byrnes, N., Cárcel, S., Carrión, J. V., Cebrián, S., Church, E., Conde, C. A. N., Contreras, T., Denisenko, A. A., Díaz, G., Díaz, J., Escada, J., Esteve, R., Felkai, R., Fernandes, L. M. P., Ferrario, P., Ferreira, A. L., Foss, F., Freitas, E. D. C., Freixa, Z., Generowicz, J., Goldschmidt, A., Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., González, R., González-Díaz, D., Gosh, S., Guenette, R., Gutiérrez, R. M., Haefner, J., Hafidi, K., Hauptman, J., Henriques, C. A. O., Morata, J. A. Hernando, Herrero, P., Herrero, V., Ho, J., Ifergan, Y., Jones, B. J. P., Kekic, M., Labarga, L., Laing, A., Lebrun, P., López-March, N., Losada, M., Mano, R. D. P., Martín-Albo, J., Martínez, A., Martínez-Vara, M., Martínez-Lema, G., McDonald, A. D., Meziani, Z. E., Monrabal, F., Monteiro, C. M. B., Mora, F. J., Vidal, J. Muñoz, Newhouse, C., Novella, P., Nygren, D. R., Oblak, E., Palmeiro, B., Para, A., Pérez, J., Querol, M., Redwine, A., Renner, J., Ripoll, L., Rivilla, I., García, Y. Rodríguez, Rodríguez, J., Rogero, C., Rogers, L., Romeo, B., Romo-Luque, C., Santos, F. P., Santos, J. M. F. dos, Simón, A., Sorel, M., Stanford, C., Teixeira, J. M. R., Thapa, P., Toledo, J. F., Torrent, J., Usón, A., Veloso, J. F. C. A., Vuong, T. T., Webb, R., Weiss-Babai, R., White, J. T., Woodruff, K., and Yahlali, N.
Subjects: Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, Nuclear Experiment
Abstract: The Neutrino Experiment with a Xenon TPC (NEXT) searches for the neutrinoless double-beta decay of Xe-136 using high-pressure xenon gas TPCs with electroluminescent amplification. A scaled-up version of this technology with about 1 tonne of enriched xenon could reach in less than 5 years of operation a sensitivity to the half-life of neutrinoless double-beta decay decay better than 1E27 years, improving the current limits by at least one order of magnitude. This prediction is based on a well-understood background model dominated by radiogenic sources. The detector concept presented here represents a first step on a compelling path towards sensitivity to the parameter space defined by the inverted ordering of neutrino masses, and beyond., Comment: 22 pages, 11 figures
Published: 2020

20. Mitigation of Backgrounds from Cosmogenic $^{137}$Xe in Xenon Gas Experiments using $^{3}$He Neutron Capture

Author: Rogers, L., Jones, B. J. P., Laing, A., Pingulkar, S., Woodruff, K., Adams, C., Álvarez, V., Arazi, L., Arnquist, I. J., Azevedo, C. D. R, Bailey, K., Ballester, F., Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., Borges, F. I. G. M., Byrnes, N., Cárcel, S., Carrión, J. V., Cebrián, S., Church, E., Conde, C. A. N., Contreras, T., Díaz, G., Díaz, J., Diesburg, M., Dingler, R., Escada, J., Esteve, R., Felkai, R., Fernandes, A. F. M., Fernandes, L. M. P., Ferrario, P., Ferreira, A. L., Freitas, E. D. C., Generowicz, J., Ghosh, S., Goldschmidt, A., Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., González-Díaz, D., Guenette, R., Gutiérrez, R. M., Haefner, J., Hafidi, K., Hauptman, J., Henriques, C. A. O., Morata, J. A. Hernando, Herrero, P., Herrero, V., Ifergan, Y., Johnston, S., Kekic, M., Labarga, L., Lebrun, P., López-March, N., Losada, M., Mano, R. D. P., Martín-Albo, J., Martínez, A., Martínez-Lema, G., McDonald, A. D., Monrabal, F., Monteiro, C. M. B., Mora, F. J., Vidal, J. Muñoz, Novella, P., Nygren, D. R., Palmeiro, B., Para, A., Pérez, J., Querol, M., Redwine, A. B., Renner, J., Repond, J., Riordan, S., Ripoll, L., García, Y. Rodríguez, Rodríguez, J., Romeo, B., Romo-Luque, C., Santos, F. P., Santos, J. M. F. dos, Simón, A., Sofka, C., Sorel, M., Stiegler, T., Toledo, J. F., Torrent, J., Usón, A., Veloso, J. F. C. A., Webb, R., Weiss-Babai, R., White, J. T., and Yahlali, N.
Subjects: Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, High Energy Physics - Experiment
Abstract: \Xe{136} is used as the target medium for many experiments searching for \bbnonu. Despite underground operation, cosmic muons that reach the laboratory can produce spallation neutrons causing activation of detector materials. A potential background that is difficult to veto using muon tagging comes in the form of \Xe{137} created by the capture of neutrons on \Xe{136}. This isotope decays via beta decay with a half-life of 3.8 minutes and a \Qb\ of $\sim$4.16 MeV. This work proposes and explores the concept of adding a small percentage of \He{3} to xenon as a means to capture thermal neutrons and reduce the number of activations in the detector volume. When using this technique we find the contamination from \Xe{137} activation can be reduced to negligible levels in tonne and multi-tonne scale high pressure gas xenon neutrinoless double beta decay experiments running at any depth in an underground laboratory.
Published: 2020
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21. Processing of Compton events in the PETALO readout system

Author: Renner, J., Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., Carrión, J. V., Gadea, R., Herrero-Bosch, V., Kekic, M., Romo-Luque, C., Ferrario, P., and Gómez-Cadenas, J. J.
Subjects: Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors
Abstract: PETALO (Positron Emission TOF Apparatus based on Liquid xenOn) exploits the unique characteristics of liquid xenon as a scintillator for use in a PET detector. Here initial simulation studies are detailed which highlight the potential of such a detector and outline the steps taken in the reconstruction of 511 keV gamma rays and in the full PET image reconstruction. In particular, a neural network-based approach is conceived in order to tag gamma rays that are poorly reconstructed due to Compton scattering. It is found that though a significant fraction of events undergo Compton scattering, not all of these events will necessarily be poorly reconstructed. Further study is necessary to determine whether or not an online implementation of the neural network-based event tagging will provide sufficient recovery of the image quality., Comment: Presented at the 2019 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference
Published: 2020

22. Radio Frequency and DC High Voltage Breakdown of High Pressure Helium, Argon, and Xenon

Author: Woodruff, K., Baeza-Rubio, J., Huerta, D., Jones, B. J. P., McDonald, A. D., Norman, L., Nygren, D. R., Adams, C., Álvarez, V., Arazi, L., Arnquist, I. J., Azevedo, C. D. R, Bailey, K., Ballester, F., Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., Borges, F. I. G. M., Byrnes, N. K., Cárcel, S., Carrión, J. V., Cebrián, S., Church, E., Conde, C. A. N., Contreras, T., Denisenko, A. A., Díaz, G., Díaz, J., Diesburg, M., Escada, J., Esteve, R., Felkai, R., Fernandes, A. F. M., Fernandes, L. M. P., Ferrario, P., Ferreira, A. L., Foss Jr., F. W., Freitas, E. D. C., Generowicz, J., Goldschmidt, A., González-Díaz, D., Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., Ghosh, S., Guenette, R., Gutiérrez, R. M., Haefner, J., Hafidi, K., Hauptman, J., Henriques, C. A. O., Morata, J. A. Hernando, Herrero, P., Herrero, V., Johnston, S., Kekic, M., Labarga, L., Laing, A., Lebrun, P., López-March, N., Losada, M., Mano, R. D. P., Martín-Albo, J., Martínez, A., Martínez-Lema, G., Monrabal, F., Monteiro, C. M. B., Mora, F. J., Vidal, J. Muñoz, Novella, P., Palmeiro, B., Para, A., Pérez, J., Querol, M., Renner, J., Repond, J., Riordan, S., Ripoll, L., Garcia, Y. Rodriguez, Rodríguez, J., Rogers, L., Romeo, B., Romo-Luque, C., Santos, F. P., Santos, J. M. F. dos, Simón, A., Sofka, C., Sorel, M., Stiegler, T., Thapa, P., Toledo, J. F., Torrent, J., Usón, A., Veloso, J. F. C. A., Webb, R., Weiss-Babai, R., White, J. T., and Yahlali, N.
Subjects: Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, Nuclear Experiment
Abstract: Motivated by the possibility of guiding daughter ions from double beta decay events to single-ion sensors for barium tagging, the NEXT collaboration is developing a program of R&D to test radio frequency (RF) carpets for ion transport in high pressure xenon gas. This would require carpet functionality in regimes at higher pressures than have been previously reported, implying correspondingly larger electrode voltages than in existing systems. This mode of operation appears plausible for contemporary RF-carpet geometries due to the higher predicted breakdown strength of high pressure xenon relative to low pressure helium, the working medium in most existing RF carpet devices. In this paper we present the first measurements of the high voltage dielectric strength of xenon gas at high pressure and at the relevant RF frequencies for ion transport (in the 10 MHz range), as well as new DC and RF measurements of the dielectric strengths of high pressure argon and helium gases at small gap sizes. We find breakdown voltages that are compatible with stable RF carpet operation given the gas, pressure, voltage, materials and geometry of interest.
Published: 2019
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23. Low-diffusion Xe-He gas mixtures for rare-event detection: Electroluminescence Yield

Author: Fernandes, A. F. M., Henriques, C. A. O., Mano, R. D. P., González-Díaz, D., Azevedo, C. D. R., Silva, P. A. O. C., Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., Freitas, E. D. C., Fernandes, L. M. P., Monteiro, C. M. B., Adams, C., Álvarez, V., Arazi, L., Arnquist, I. J., Bailey, K., Ballester, F., Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., Borges, F. I. G. M., Byrnes, N., Cárcel, S., Carríon, J. V., Cebrían, S., Church, E., Conde, C. A. N., Contreras, T., Díaz, J., Díaz, G., Diesburg, M., Escada, J., Esteve, R., Felkai, R., Ferrario, P., Ferreira, A. L., Generowicz, J., Ghosh, S., Goldschmidt, A., Guenette, R., Gutiérrez, R. M., Haefner, J., Hafidi, K., Hauptman, J., Morata, J. A. Hernando, Herrero, P., Herrero, V., Ifergan, Y., Johnston, S., Jones, B. J. P., Kekic, M., Labarga, L., Laing, A., Lebrun, P., López-March, N., Losada, M., Martín-Albo, J., Martínez, A., Martínez-Lema, G., McDonald, A. D., Monrabal, F., Mora, F. J., Vidal, J. Muñoz, Novella, P., Nygren, D. R., Palmeiro, B., Para, A., Pérez, J., Psihas, F., Querol, M., Renner, J., Repond, J., Riordan, S., Ripoll, L., García, Y. Rodríguez, Rodríguez, J., Rogers, L., Romeo, B., Romo-Luque, C., Santos, F. P., Santos, J. M. F. dos, Simón, A., Sofka, C., Sorel, M., Stiegler, T., Toledo, J. F., Torrent, J., Usón, A., Veloso, J. F. C. A., Webb, R., Weiss-Babai, R., White, J. T., Woodruff, K., and Yahlali, N.
Subjects: Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, Physics - Applied Physics
Abstract: High pressure xenon Time Projection Chambers (TPC) based on secondary scintillation (electroluminescence) signal amplification are being proposed for rare event detection such as directional dark matter, double electron capture and double beta decay detection. The discrimination of the rare event through the topological signature of primary ionisation trails is a major asset for this type of TPC when compared to single liquid or double-phase TPCs, limited mainly by the high electron diffusion in pure xenon. Helium admixtures with xenon can be an attractive solution to reduce the electron diffusion significantly, improving the discrimination efficiency of these optical TPCs. We have measured the electroluminescence (EL) yield of Xe-He mixtures, in the range of 0 to 30% He and demonstrated the small impact on the EL yield of the addition of helium to pure xenon. For a typical reduced electric field of 2.5 kV/cm/bar in the scintillation region, the EL yield is lowered by ~ 2%, 3%, 6% and 10% for 10%, 15%, 20% and 30% of helium concentration, respectively. This decrease is less than what has been obtained from the most recent simulation framework in the literature. The impact of the addition of helium on EL statistical fluctuations is negligible, within the experimental uncertainties. The present results are an important benchmark for the simulation tools to be applied to future optical TPCs based on Xe-He mixtures.
Published: 2019

24. Radiogenic backgrounds in the NEXT double beta decay experiment

Author: NEXT Collaboration, Novella, P., Palmeiro, B., Sorel, M., Usón, A., Ferrario, P., Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., Adams, C., Álvarez, V., Arazi, L., Arnquist, I. J., Azevedo, C. D. R, Bailey, K., Ballester, F., Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., Borges, F. I. G. M., Byrnes, N., Cárcel, S., Carrión, J. V., Cebrián, S., Church, E., Conde, C. A. N., Contreras, T., López, G. Díaz, Díaz, J., Diesburg, M., Escada, J., Esteve, R., Felkai, R., Fernandes, A. F. M., Fernandes, L. M. P., Ferreira, A. L., Freitas, E. D. C., Generowicz, J., Ghosh, S., Goldschmidt, A., González-Díaz, D., Guenette, R., Gutiérrez, R. M., Haefner, J., Hafidi, K., Hauptman, J., Henriques, C. A. O., Morata, J. A. Hernando, Herrero, P., Herrero, V., Ifergan, Y., Johnston, S., Jones, B. J. P., Kekic, M., Labarga, L., Laing, A., Lebrun, P., López-March, N., Losada, M., Mano, R. D. P., Martín-Albo, J., Martínez, A., Martínez-Lema, G., McDonald, A. D., Monrabal, F., Monteiro, C. M. B., Mora, F. J., Vidal, J. Muñoz, Nygren, D. R., Para, A., Pérez, J., Psihas, F., Querol, M., Renner, J., Repond, J., Riordan, S., Ripoll, L., García, Y. Rodríguez, Rodríguez, J., Rogers, L., Romeo, B., Romo-Luque, C., Santos, F. P., Santos, J. M. F. dos, Simón, A., Sofka, C., Stiegler, T., Toledo, J. F., Torrent, J., Veloso, J. F. C. A., Webb, R., Weiss-Babai, R., White, J. T., Woodruff, K., and Yahlali, N.
Subjects: Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, High Energy Physics - Experiment
Abstract: Natural radioactivity represents one of the main backgrounds in the search for neutrinoless double beta decay. Within the NEXT physics program, the radioactivity-induced backgrounds are measured with the NEXT-White detector. Data from 37.9 days of low-background operations at the Laboratorio Subterr\'aneo de Canfranc with xenon depleted in $^{136}$Xe are analyzed to derive a total background rate of (0.84$\pm$0.02) mHz above 1000 keV. The comparison of data samples with and without the use of the radon abatement system demonstrates that the contribution of airborne-Rn is negligible. A radiogenic background model is built upon the extensive radiopurity screening campaign conducted by the NEXT Collaboration. A spectral fit to this model yields the specific contributions of $^{60}$Co, $^{40}$K, $^{214}$Bi and $^{208}$Tl to the total background rate, as well as their location in the detector volumes. The results are used to evaluate the impact of the radiogenic backgrounds in the double beta decay analyses, after the application of topological cuts that reduce the total rate to (0.25$\pm$0.01) mHz. Based on the best-fit background model, the NEXT-White median sensitivity to the two-neutrino double beta decay is found to be 3.5$\sigma$ after 1 year of data taking. The background measurement in a Q$_{\beta\beta}\pm$100 keV energy window validates the best-fit background model also for the neutrinoless double beta decay search with NEXT-100. Only one event is found, while the model expectation is (0.75$\pm$0.12) events.
Published: 2019
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25. Energy calibration of the NEXT-White detector with 1% resolution near Q$_{\beta\beta}$ of $^{136}$Xe

Author: Renner, J., López, G. Díaz, Ferrario, P., Morata, J. A. Hernando, Kekic, M., Martínez-Lema, G., Monrabal, F., Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., Adams, C., Álvarez, V., Arazi, L., Arnquist, I. J., Azevedo, C. D. R, Bailey, K., Ballester, F., Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., Borges, F. I. G. M., Byrnes, N., Cárcel, S., Carrión, J. V., Cebrián, S., Church, E., Conde, C. A. N., Contreras, T., Díaz, J., Diesburg, M., Escada, J., Esteve, R., Felkai, R., Fernandes, A. F. M., Fernandes, L. M. P., Ferreira, A. L., Freitas, E. D. C., Generowicz, J., Ghosh, S., Goldschmidt, A., González-Díaz, D., Guenette, R., Gutiérrez, R. M., Haefner, J., Hafidi, K., Hauptman, J., Henriques, C. A. O., Herrero, P., Herrero, V., Ifergan, Y., Johnston, S., Jones, B. J. P., Labarga, L., Laing, A., Lebrun, P., López-March, N., Losada, M., Mano, R. D. P., Martín-Albo, J., Martínez, A., McDonald, A. D., Monteiro, C. M. B., Mora, F. J., Vidal, J. Muñoz, Novella, P., Nygren, D. R., Palmeiro, B., Para, A., Pérez, J., Psihas, F., Querol, M., Repond, J., Riordan, S., Ripoll, L., García, Y. Rodríguez, Rodríguez, J., Rogers, L., Romeo, B., Romo-Luque, C., Santos, F. P., Santos, J. M. F. dos, Simón, A., Sofka, C., Sorel, M., Stiegler, T., Toledo, J. F., Torrent, J., Usón, A., Veloso, J. F. C. A., Webb, R., Weiss-Babai, R., White, J. T., Woodruff, K., and Yahlali, N.
Subjects: Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors
Abstract: Excellent energy resolution is one of the primary advantages of electroluminescent high pressure xenon TPCs, and searches for rare physics events such as neutrinoless double-beta decay ($\beta\beta0\nu$) require precise energy measurements. Using the NEXT-White detector, developed by the NEXT (Neutrino Experiment with a Xenon TPC) collaboration, we show for the first time that an energy resolution of 1% FWHM can be achieved at 2.6 MeV, establishing the present technology as the one with the best energy resolution of all xenon detectors for $\beta\beta0\nu$ searches., Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures; accepted to JHEP
Published: 2019
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26. Demonstration of the event identification capabilities of the NEXT-White detector

Author: NEXT Collaboration, Ferrario, P., Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., López, G. Díaz, Morata, J. A. Hernando, Kekic, M., Renner, J., Usón, A., Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., Adams, C., Álvarez, V., Arazi, L., Arnquist, I. J., Azevedo, C. D. R, Bailey, K., Ballester, F., Borges, F. I. G. M., Byrnes, N., Cárcel, S., Carrión, J. V., Cebrián, S., Church, E., Conde, C. A. N., Contreras, T., Díaz, J., Diesburg, M., Escada, J., Esteve, R., Felkai, R., Fernandes, A. F. M., Fernandes, L. M. P., Ferreira, A. L., Freitas, E. D. C., Generowicz, J., Ghosh, S., Goldschmidt, A., González-Díaz, D., Guenette, R., Gutiérrez, R. M., Haefner, J., Hafidi, K., Hauptman, J., Henriques, C. A. O., Herrero, P., Herrero, V., Ifergan, Y., Johnston, S., Jones, B. J. P., Labarga, L., Laing, A., Lebrun, P., López-March, N., Losada, M., Mano, R. D. P., Martín-Albo, J., Martínez, A., Martínez-Lema, G., McDonald, A. D., Monrabal, F., Monteiro, C. M. B., Mora, F. J., Vidal, J. Muñoz, Novella, P., Nygren, D. R., Palmeiro, B., Para, A., Pérez, J., Psihas, F., Querol, M., Repond, J., Riordan, S., Ripoll, L., García, Y. Rodríguez, Rodríguez, J., Rogers, L., Romeo, B., Romo-Luque, C., Santos, F. P., Santos, J. M. F. dos, Simón, A., Sofka, C., Sorel, M., Stiegler, T., Toledo, J. F., Torrent, J., Veloso, J. F. C. A., Webb, R., Weiss-Babai, R., White, J. T., Woodruff, K., and Yahlali, N.
Subjects: Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, High Energy Physics - Experiment
Abstract: In experiments searching for neutrinoless double-beta decay, the possibility of identifying the two emitted electrons is a powerful tool in rejecting background events and therefore improving the overall sensitivity of the experiment. In this paper we present the first measurement of the efficiency of a cut based on the different event signatures of double and single electron tracks, using the data of the NEXT-White detector, the first detector of the NEXT experiment operating underground. Using a \TO\ calibration source to produce signal-like and background-like events with energies near 1.6 MeV, a signal efficiency of $71.6 \pm 1.5_{\textrm{ stat}} \pm 0.3_{\textrm{ sys}} \%$ for a background acceptance of $20.6 \pm 0.4_{\textrm{ stat}} \pm 0.3_{\textrm{ sys}} \%$ is found, in good agreement with Monte Carlo simulations. An extrapolation to the energy region of the neutrinoless double beta decay by means of Monte Carlo simulations is also carried out, and the results obtained show an improvement in background rejection over those obtained at lower energies., Comment: Accepted by JHEP
Published: 2019
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27. Electron Drift and Longitudinal Diffusion in High Pressure Xenon-Helium Gas Mixtures

Author: McDonald, A. D., Woodruff, K., Atoum, B. Al, González-Díaz, D., Jones, B. J. P., Adams, C., Álvarez, V., Arazi, L., Arnquist, I. J., Azevedo, C. D. R, Bailey, K., Ballester, F., Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., Borges, F. I. G. M., Cárcel, S., Carrión, J. V., Cebrián, S., Church, E., Conde, C. A. N., Díaz, G., Díaz, J., Diesburg, M., Escada, J., Esteve, R., Felkai, R., Fernandes, A. F. M., Fernandes, L. M. P., Ferrario, P., Ferreira, A. L., Freitas, E. D. C., Generowicz, J., Goldschmidt, A., Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., Guenette, R., Gutiérrez, R. M., Haefner, J., Hafidi, K., Hauptman, J., Henriques, C. A. O., Morata, J. A. Hernando, Herrero, P., Herrero, V., Johnston, S., Kekic, M., Labarga, L., Laing, A., Lebrun, P., López-March, N., Losada, M., Mano, R. D. P., Martín-Albo, J., Martínez, A., Martínez-Lema, G., Monrabal, F., Monteiro, C. M. B., Mora, F. J., MuñozVidal, J., Novella, P., Nygren, D. R., Palmeiro, B., Para, A., Pérez, J., Querol, M., Renner, J., Repond, J., Riordan, S., Ripoll, L., Garcia, Y. Rodriguez, Rodríguez, J., Rogers, L., Romeo, B., Romo-Luque, C., Santos, F. P., Santos, J. M. F. dos, Simón, A., Sofka, C., Sorel, M., Stiegler, T., Toledo, J. F., Torrent, J., Usón, A., Veloso, J. F. C. A., Webb, R., Weiss-Babai, White, J. T., and Yahlali, N.
Subjects: Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, Nuclear Experiment
Abstract: We report new measurements of the drift velocity and longitudinal diffusion coefficients of electrons in pure xenon gas and in xenon-helium gas mixtures at 1-9 bar and electric field strengths of 50-300 V/cm. In pure xenon we find excellent agreement with world data at all $E/P$, for both drift velocity and diffusion coefficients. However, a larger value of the longitudinal diffusion coefficient than theoretical predictions is found at low $E/P$ in pure xenon, below the range of reduced fields usually probed by TPC experiments. A similar effect is observed in xenon-helium gas mixtures at somewhat larger $E/P$. Drift velocities in xenon-helium mixtures are found to be theoretically well predicted. Although longitudinal diffusion in xenon-helium mixtures is found to be larger than anticipated, extrapolation based on the measured longitudinal diffusion coefficients suggest that the use of helium additives to reduce transverse diffusion in xenon gas remains a promising prospect.
Published: 2019
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28. Study of the loss of Xenon Scintillation in Xenon-Trimethylamine Mixtures

Author: Trindade, A. M. F., Escada, J., Cortez, A. F. V., Borges, F. I. G. M., Santos, F. P., Adams, C., Álvarez, V., Arazi, L., Azevedo, C. D. R., Ballester, F., Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., Botas, A., Cárcel, S., Carríon, J. V., Cebrián, S., Conde, C. A. N., Díaz, J., Diesburg, M., Esteve, R., Felkai, R., Fernandes, L. M. P., Ferrario, P., Ferreira, A. L., Freitas, E. D. C., Goldschmidt, A., Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., González-Díaz, D., Guenette, R., Gutiérrez, R. M., Hafidi, K., Hauptman, J., Henriques, C. A. O., Hernandez, A. I., Morata, J. A. Hernando, Herrero, V., Johnston, S., Jones, B. J. P., Labarga, L., Laing, A., Lebrun, P., Liubarsky, I., López-March, N., Losada, M., Martín-Albo, J., Martínez-Lema, G., Martínez, A., McDonald, A. D., Monrabal, F., Monteiro, C. M. B., Mora, F. J., Moutinho, L. M., Vidal, J. Muñoz, Musti, M., Nebot-Guinot, M., Novella, P., Nygrenq, D. R., Palmeiro, B., Para, A., Pérez, J., Querol, M., Renner, J., Repond, J., Riordan, S., Ripoll, L., Rodríguez, J., Rogers, L., Santos, J. M. F. dos, Simón, A., Sofka, C., Sorel, M., Stiegler, T., Toledo, J. F., Torrent, J., Tsamalaidze, Z., Veloso, J. F. C. A., Webb, R., White, J. T., and Yahlalid, N.
Subjects: Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors
Abstract: This work investigates the capability of TMA ((CH3)3N) molecules to shift the wavelength of Xe VUV emission (160-188 nm) to a longer, more manageable, wavelength (260-350 nm). Light emitted from a Xe lamp was passed through a gas chamber filled with Xe-TMA mixtures at 800 Torr and detected with a photomultiplier tube. Using bandpass filters in the proper transmission ranges, no reemitted light was observed experimentally. Considering the detection limit of the experimental system, if reemission by TMA molecules occurs, it is below 0.3% of the scintillation absorbed in the 160-188 nm range. An absorption coefficient value for xenon VUV light by TMA of 0.43+/-0.03 cm-1.Torr-1 was also obtained. These results can be especially important for experiments considering TMA as a molecular additive to Xe in large volume optical time projection chambers., Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables
Published: 2018
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29. Initial results on energy resolution of the NEXT-White detector

Author: Renner, J., Ferrario, P., Martínez-Lema, G., Monrabal, F., Para, A., Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., Adams, C., Álvarez, V., Arazi, L., Azevedo, C. D. R., Bailey, K., Ballester, F., Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., Borges, F. I. G. M., Botas, A., Cárcel, S., Carrión, J. V., Cebrián, S., Conde, C. A. N., Díaz, J., Diesburg, M., Escada, J., Esteve, R., Felkai, R., Fernandes, A. F. M., Fernandes, L. M. P., Ferreira, A. L., Freitas, E. D. C., Generowicz, J., Goldschmidt, A., González-Díaz, D., Guenette, R., Gutiérrez, R. M., Hafidi, K., Hauptman, J., Henriques, C. A. O., Hernandez, A. I., Morata, J. A. Hernando, Herrero, V., Johnston, S., Jones, B. J. P., Kekic, M., Labarga, L., Laing, A., Lebrun, P., López-March, N., Losada, M., Mano, R. D. P., Martín-Albo, J., Martínez, A., McDonald, A. D., Monteiro, C. M. B., Mora, F. J., Vidal, J. Muñoz, Musti, M., Nebot-Guinot, M., Novella, P., Nygren, D. R., Palmeiro, B., Pérez, J., Psihas, F., Querol, M., Repond, J., Riordan, S., Ripoll, L., Rodríguez, J., Rogers, L., Romo-Luque, C., Santos, F. P., Santos, J. M. F. dos, Simón, A., Sofka, C., Sorel, M., Stiegler, T., Toledo, J. F., Torrent, J., Veloso, J. F. C. A., Webb, R., White, J. T., and Yahlali, N.
Subjects: Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors
Abstract: One of the major goals of the NEXT-White (NEW) detector is to demonstrate the energy resolution that an electroluminescent high pressure xenon TPC can achieve for high energy tracks. For this purpose, energy calibrations with 137Cs and 232Th sources have been carried out as a part of the long run taken with the detector during most of 2017. This paper describes the initial results obtained with those calibrations, showing excellent linearity and an energy resolution that extrapolates to approximately 1% FWHM at Q$_{\beta\beta}$., Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures, Accepted for publication in JINST
Published: 2018
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30. Electroluminescence TPCs at the thermal diffusion limit

Author: Henriques, C. A. O., Monteiro, C. M. B., González-Díaz, D., Azevedo, C. D. R, Freitas, E. D. C., Mano, R. D. P., Jorge, M. R., Fernandes, A. F. M., Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., Fernandes, L. M. P., Adams, C., Álvarez, V., Arazi, L., Bailey, K., Ballester, F., Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., Borges, F. I. G. M., Botas, A., Cárcel, S., Carrión, J. V., Cebrián, S., Conde, C. A. N., Díaz, J., Diesburg, M., Escada, J., Esteve, R., Felkai, R., Ferrario, P., Ferreira, A. L., Generowicz, J., Goldschmidt, A., Guenette, R., Gutiérrez, R. M., Hafidi, K., Hauptman, J., Hernandez, A. I., Morata, J. A. Hernando, Herrero, V., Johnston, S., Jones, B. J. P., Kekic, M., Labarga, L., Laing, A., Lebrun, P., López-March, N., Losada, M., Martín-Albo, J., Martínez, A., Martínez-Lema, G., McDonald, A., Monrabal, F., Mora, F. J., Vidal, J. Muñoz, Musti, M., Nebot-Guinot, M., Novella, P., Nygren, D. R., Palmeiro, B., Para, A., Pérez, J., Psihas, F., Querol, M., Renner, J., Repond, J., Riordan, S., Ripoll, L., Rodríguez, J., Rogers, L., Romo-Luque, C., Santos, F. P., Santos, J. M. F. dos, Simón, A., Sofka, C., Sorel, M., Stiegler, T., Toledo, J. F., Torrent, J., Veloso, J. F. C. A., Webb, R., White, J. T., and Yahlali, N.
Subjects: Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, High Energy Physics - Experiment
Abstract: The NEXT experiment aims at searching for the hypothetical neutrinoless double-beta decay from the ${}^{136}$Xe isotope using a high-purity xenon TPC. Efficient discrimination of the events through pattern recognition of the topology of primary ionisation tracks is a major requirement for the experiment. However, it is limited by the diffusion of electrons. It is known that the addition of a small fraction of a molecular gas to xenon reduces electron diffusion. On the other hand, the electroluminescence (EL) yield drops and the achievable energy resolution may be compromised. We have studied the effect of adding several molecular gases to xenon (CO${}_{2}$, CH${}_{4}$ and CF${}_{4}$) on the EL yield and energy resolution obtained in a small prototype of driftless gas proportional scintillation counter. We have compared our results on the scintillation characteristics (EL yield and energy resolution) with a microscopic simulation, obtaining the diffusion coefficients in those conditions as well. Accordingly, electron diffusion may be reduced from about 10 mm/$\sqrt{\mathrm{m}}$ for pure xenon down to 2.5 mm/$\sqrt{\mathrm{m}}$ using additive concentrations of about 0.05%, 0.2% and 0.02% for CO${}_{2}$, CH${}_{4}$ and CF${}_{4}$, respectively. Our results show that CF${}_{4}$ admixtures present the highest EL yield in those conditions, but very poor energy resolution as a result of huge fluctuations observed in the EL formation. CH${}_{4}$ presents the best energy resolution despite the EL yield being the lowest. The results obtained with xenon admixtures are extrapolated to the operational conditions of the NEXT-100 TPC. CO${}_{2}$ and CH${}_{4}$ show potential as molecular additives in a large xenon TPC, CH${}_{4}$ showing the best performance and stability to be used in the NEXT-100 TPC, with an extrapolated energy resolution of 0.4% at 2.45 MeV for concentrations below 0.4%., Comment: 22 pages, 8 figures
Published: 2018
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31. The Next White (NEW) detector

Author: Monrabal, F., Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., Toledo, J. F., Álvarez, V., Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., Cárcel, S., Carrión, J. V., Esteve, R., Felkai, R., Herrero, V., Laing, A., Martínez, A., Musti, M., Querol, M., Rodríguez, J., Simón, A., Sofka, C., Torrent, J., Webb, R., White, J. T., Adams, C., Arazi, L., Azevedo, C. D. R., Bailey, K., Ballester, F., Borges, F. I. G. M., Botas, A., Cebrián, S., Conde, C. A. N., Díaz, J., Diesburg, M., Escada, J., Fernandes, L. M. P., Ferrario, P., Ferreira, A. L., Freitas, E. D. C., Goldschmidt, A., González-Díaz, D., Guenette, R., Gutiérrez, R. M., Hafidi, K., Hauptman, J., Henriques, C. A. O., Hernandez, A. I., Morata, J. A. Hernando, Johnston, S., Jones, B. J. P., Labarga, L., Lebrun, P., López-March, N., Losada, M., Martín-Albo, J., Martínez-Lema, G., McDonald, A. D., Monteiro, C. M. B., Mora, F. J., Vidal, J. Munoz, Nebot-Guinot, M., Novella, P., Nygren, D. R., Palmeiro, B., Para, A., Pérez, J., Renner, J., Repond, J., Riordan, S., Romo, C., Ripoll, L., Rogers, L., Santos, F. P., Santos, J. M. F. dos, Sorel, M., Stiegler, T., Veloso, J. F. C. A., and Yahlali, N.
Subjects: Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors
Abstract: Conceived to host 5 kg of xenon at a pressure of 15 bar in the fiducial volume, the NEXT- White (NEW) apparatus is currently the largest high pressure xenon gas TPC using electroluminescent amplification in the world. It is also a 1:2 scale model of the NEXT-100 detector scheduled to start searching for $\beta\beta 0\nu$ decays in 136Xe in 2019. Both detectors measure the energy of the event using a plane of photomultipliers located behind a transparent cathode. They can also reconstruct the trajectories of charged tracks in the dense gas of the TPC with the help of a plane of silicon photomultipliers located behind the anode. A sophisticated gas system, common to both detectors, allows the high gas purity needed to guarantee a long electron lifetime. NEXT-White has been operating since October 2017 at the Canfranc Underground Laboratory (LSC), in Spain. This paper describes the detector and associated infrastructures.
Published: 2018
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32. Electron drift properties in high pressure gaseous xenon

Author: NEXT Collaboration, Simón, A., Felkai, R., Martínez-Lema, G., Monrabal, F., González-Díaz, D., Sorel, M., Morata, J. A. Hernando, Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., Adams, C., Álvarez, V., Arazi, L., Azevedo, C. D. R., Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., Borges, F. I. G. M., Botas, A., Cárcel, S., Carrión, J. V., Cebrián, S., Conde, C. A. N., Díaz, J., Diesburg, M., Escada, J., Esteve, R., Fernandes, L. M. P., Ferrario, P., Ferreira, A. L., Freitas, E. D. C., Generowicz, J., Goldschmidt, A., Guenette, R., Gutiérrez, R. M., Hafidi, K., Hauptman, J., Henriques, C. A. O., Hernandez, A. I., Herrero, V., Johnston, S., Jones, B. J. P., Kekic, M., Labarga, L., Laing, A., Lebrun, P., López-March, N., Losada, M., Martín-Albo, J., Martínez, A., McDonald, A. D., Monteiro, C. M. B., Mora, F. J., Vidal, J. Muñoz, Musti, M., Nebot-Guinot, M., Novella, P., Nygren, D. R., Palmeiro, B., Para, A., Pérez, J., Querol, M., Renner, J., Repond, J., Riordan, S., Ripoll, L., Rodríguez, J., Rogers, L., Romo, C., Santos, F. P., Santos, J. M. F. dos, Sofka, C., Stiegler, T., Toledo, J. F., Torrent, J., Veloso, J. F. C. A., Webb, R., White, J. T., and Yahlali, N.
Subjects: Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, High Energy Physics - Experiment, Nuclear Experiment
Abstract: Gaseous time projection chambers (TPC) are a very attractive detector technology for particle tracking. Characterization of both drift velocity and diffusion is of great importance to correctly assess their tracking capabilities. NEXT-White is a High Pressure Xenon gas TPC with electroluminescent amplification, a 1:2 scale model of the future NEXT-100 detector, which will be dedicated to neutrinoless double beta decay searches. NEXT-White has been operating at Canfranc Underground Laboratory (LSC) since December 2016. The drift parameters have been measured using $^{83m}$Kr for a range of reduced drift fields at two different pressure regimes, namely 7.2 bar and 9.1 bar. The results have been compared with Magboltz simulations. Agreement at the 5% level or better has been found for drift velocity, longitudinal diffusion and transverse diffusion., Comment: 22 pages, 17 figures
Published: 2018
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33. Calibration of the NEXT-White detector using $^{83m}\mathrm{Kr}$ decays

Author: Martínez-Lema, G., Morata, J. A. Hernando, Palmeiro, B., Botas, A., Ferrario, P., Monrabal, F., Laing, A., Renner, J., Simón, A., Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., Adams, C., Álvarez, V., Arazi, L., Azevedo, C. D. R., Bailey, K., Ballester, F., Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., Borges, F. I. G. M., Cárcel, S., Carrión, J. V., Cebrián, S., Conde, C. A. N., Díaz, J., Diesburg, M., Escada, J., Esteve, R., Felkai, R., Fernandes, L. M. P., Ferreira, A. L., Freitas, E. D. C., Generowicz, J., Goldschmidt, A., González-Díaz, D., Guenette, R., Gutiérrez, R. M., Hafidi, K., Hauptman, J., Henriques, C. A. O., Hernandez, A. I., Herrero, V., Johnston, S., Jones, B. J. P., Kekic, M., Labarga, L., Lebrun, P., López-March, N., Losada, M., Martín-Albo, J., Martínez, A., McDonald, A. D., Monteiro, C. M. B., Mora, F. J., Vidal, J. Muñoz, Musti, M., Nebot-Guinot, M., Novella, P., Nygren, D. R., Para, A., Pérez, J., Querol, M., Repond, J., Riordan, S., Ripoll, L., Rodríguez, J., Rogers, L., Romo, C., Santos, F. P., Santos, J. M. F. dos, Sofka, C., Sorel, M., Stiegler, T., Toledo, J. F., Torrent, J., Veloso, J. F. C. A., Webb, R., White, J. T., and Yahlalib, N.
Subjects: Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, High Energy Physics - Experiment
Abstract: The NEXT-White (NEW) detector is currently the largest radio-pure high-pressure xenon gas time projection chamber with electroluminescent readout in the world. NEXT-White has been operating at Laboratorio Subterr\'aneo de Canfranc (LSC) since October 2016. This paper describes the calibrations performed with $^{83m}\mathrm{Kr}$ decays during a long run taken from March to November 2017 (Run II). Krypton calibrations are used to correct for the finite drift-electron lifetime as well as for the dependence of the measured energy on the event position which is mainly caused by variations in solid angle coverage. After producing calibration maps to correct for both effects we measure an excellent energy resolution for 41.5 keV point-like deposits of (4.553 $\pm$ 0.010 (stat.) $\pm$ 0.324 (sys.)) % FWHM in the full chamber and (3.804 $\pm$ 0.013 (stat.) $\pm$ 0.112 (sys.)) % FWHM in a restricted fiducial volume. Using naive 1/$\sqrt{E}$ scaling, these values translate into resolutions of (0.516 $\pm$ 0.0014 (stat.) $\pm$ 0.0421 (sys.)) % FWHM and (0.4943 $\pm$ 0.0017 (stat.) $\pm$ 0.0146 (sys.)) % FWHM at the $Q_{\beta\beta}$ energy of xenon double beta decay (2458 keV), well within range of our target value of 1%., Comment: 20 pages, 18 figures
Published: 2018
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34. Measurement of radon-induced backgrounds in the NEXT double beta decay experiment

Author: NEXT Collaboration, Novella, P., Palmeiro, B., Simón, A., Sorel, M., Adams, C., Ferrario, P., Martínez-Lema, G., Monrabal, F., Zuzel, G., Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., Álvarez, V., Arazi, L., Azevedo, C. D. R, Bailey, K., Ballester, F., Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., Borges, F. I. G. M., Botas, A., Cárcel, S., Carrión, J. V., Cebrián, S., Conde, C. A. N., Díaz, J., Diesburg, M., Escada, J., Esteve, R., Felkai, R., Fernandes, A. F. M., Fernandes, L. M. P., Ferreira, A. L., Freitas, E. D. C., Generowicz, J., Goldschmidt, A., González-Díaz, D., Guenette, R., Gutiérrez, R. M., Hafidi, K., Hauptman, J., Henriques, C. A. O., Hernandez, A. I., Morata, J. A. Hernando, Herrero, V., Johnston, S., Jones, B. J. P., Kekic, M., Labarga, L., Laing, A., Lebrun, P., López-March, N., Losada, M., Mano, R. D. P., Martín-Albo, J., Martínez, A., McDonald, A., Monteiro, C. M. B., Mora, F. J., Vidal, J. Muñoz, Musti, M., Nebot-Guinot, M., Nygren, D. R., Para, A., Pérez, J., Psihas, F., Querol, M., Renner, J., Repond, J., Riordan, S., Ripoll, L., Rodríguez, J., Rogers, L., Romo-Luque, C., Santos, F. P., Santos, J. M. F. dos, Sofka, C., Stiegler, T., Toledo, J. F., Torrent, J., Veloso, J. F. C. A., Webb, R., White, J. T., and Yahlali, N.
Subjects: Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, High Energy Physics - Experiment, Nuclear Experiment
Abstract: The measurement of the internal $^{222}$Rn activity in the NEXT-White detector during the so-called Run-II period with $^{136}$Xe-depleted xenon is discussed in detail, together with its implications for double beta decay searches in NEXT. The activity is measured through the alpha production rate induced in the fiducial volume by $^{222}$Rn and its alpha-emitting progeny. The specific activity is measured to be $(38.1\pm 2.2~\mathrm{(stat.)}\pm 5.9~\mathrm{(syst.)})$~mBq/m$^3$. Radon-induced electrons have also been characterized from the decay of the $^{214}$Bi daughter ions plating out on the cathode of the time projection chamber. From our studies, we conclude that radon-induced backgrounds are sufficiently low to enable a successful NEXT-100 physics program, as the projected rate contribution should not exceed 0.1~counts/yr in the neutrinoless double beta decay sample., Comment: 28 pages, 10 figures, 6 tables. Version accepted for publication in JHEP
Published: 2018

35. Demonstration of Single Barium Ion Sensitivity for Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay using Single Molecule Fluorescence Imaging

Author: McDonald, A. D., Jones, B. J. P., Nygren, D. R., Adams, C., Alvarez, V., Azevedo, C. D. R., Benlloch-Rodrıguez, J. M., Borges, F. I. G. M., Botas, A., Carcel, S., Carrion, J. V., Cebrian, S., Conde, C. A. N., Dıaz, J., Diesburg, M., Escada, J., Esteve, R., Felkai, R., Fernandes, L. M. P., Ferrario, P., Ferreira, A. L., Freitas, E. D. C., Goldschmidt, A., Gomez-Cadenas, J. J., Gonzalez-Dıaz, D., Gutierrez, R. M., Guenette, R., Hafidi, K., Hauptman, J., Henriques, C. A. O., Hernandez, A. I., Morata, J. A. Hernando, Herrero, V., Johnston, S., Labarga, L., Laing, A., Lebrun, P., Liubarsky, I., Lopez-March, N., Losada, M., Martın-Albo, J., Martınez-Lema, G., Martınez, A., Monrabal, F., Monteiro, C. M. B., Mora, F. J., Moutinho, L. M., Vidal, J. Munoz, Musti, M., Nebot-Guinot, M., Novella, P., Palmeiro, B., Para, A., Perez, J., Querol, M., Repond, J., Renner, J., Riordan, S., Ripoll, L., Rodrıguez, J., Rogers, L., Santos, F. P., Santos, J. M. F. dos, Simon, A., Sofka, C., Sorel, M., Stiegler, T., Toledo, J. F., Torrent, J., Tsamalaidze, Z., Veloso, J. F. C. A., Webb, R., White, J. T., and Yahlali, N.
Subjects: Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, High Energy Physics - Experiment, Nuclear Experiment
Abstract: A new method to tag the barium daughter in the double beta decay of $^{136}$Xe is reported. Using the technique of single molecule fluorescent imaging (SMFI), individual barium dication (Ba$^{++}$) resolution at a transparent scanning surface has been demonstrated. A single-step photo-bleach confirms the single ion interpretation. Individual ions are localized with super-resolution ($\sim$2~nm), and detected with a statistical significance of 12.9~$\sigma$ over backgrounds. This lays the foundation for a new and potentially background-free neutrinoless double beta decay technology, based on SMFI coupled to high pressure xenon gas time projection chambers., Comment: Accepted by PRL
Published: 2017
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36. Helium-Xenon mixtures to improve topological signature in high pressure gas Xenon TPCs

Author: Felkai, R., Monrabal, F., Gonzalez-Díaz, D., Sorel, M., López-March, N., Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., Adams, C., Álvarez, V., Arazi, L., Azevedo, C. D. R., Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., Borges, F. I. G. M., Botas, A., Cárcel, S., Carrión, J. V., Cebrián, S., Conde, C. A. N., Díaz, J., Diesburg, M., Escada, J., Esteve, R., Fernandes, L. M. P., Ferrario, P., Ferreira, A. L., Freitas, E. D. C., Goldschmidt, A., Guenette, R., Gutiérrez, R. M., Hafidi, K., Hauptman, J., Henriques, C. A. O., Hernandez, A. I., Morata, J. A. Hernando, Herrero, V., Johnston, S., Jones, B. J. P., Labarga, L., Laing, A., Lebrun, P., Losada, M., Martín-Albo, J., Martínez-Lema, G., Martínez, A., McDonald, A. D., Monteiro, C. M. B., Mora, F. J., Moutinho, L. M., Vidal, J. Muñoz, Musti, M., Nebot-Guinot, M., Novella, P., Nygren, D. R., Palmeiro, B., Para, A., Pérez, J., Querol, M., Renner, J., Repond, J., Riordan, S., Ripoll, L., Romo, C., Rodríguez, J., Rogers, L., Santos, F. P., Santos, J. M. F. dos, Simón, A., Sofka, C., Stiegler, T., Toledo, J. F., Torrent, J., Tsamalaidze, Z., Veloso, J. F. C. A., Webb, R., White, J. T., and Yahlali, N.
Subjects: Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, High Energy Physics - Experiment, Nuclear Experiment
Abstract: Within the framework of xenon-based double beta decay experiments, we propose the possibility to improve the background rejection of an electroluminescent Time Projection Chamber (EL TPC) by reducing the diffusion of the drifting electrons while keeping nearly intact the energy resolution of a pure xenon EL TPC. Based on state-of-the-art microscopic simulations, a substantial addition of helium, around 10 or 15~\%, may reduce drastically the transverse diffusion down to 2.5~mm/$\sqrt{\mathrm{m}}$ from the 10.5~mm/$\sqrt{\mathrm{m}}$ of pure xenon. The longitudinal diffusion remains around 4~mm/$\sqrt{\mathrm{m}}$. Light production studies have been performed as well. They show that the relative variation in energy resolution introduced by such a change does not exceed a few percent, which leaves the energy resolution practically unchanged. The technical caveats of using photomultipliers close to an helium atmosphere are also discussed in detail., Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures
Published: 2017
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37. Radiopurity assessment of the energy readout for the NEXT double beta decay experiment

Author: Cebrián, S., Pérez, J., Bandac, I., Labarga, L., Álvarez, V., Azevedo, C. D. R., Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., Borges, F. I. G. M., Botas, A., Cárcel, S., Carrión, J. V., Conde, C. A. N., Díaz, J., Diesburg, M., Escada, J., Esteve, R., Felkai, R., Fernandes, L. M. P., Ferrario, P., Ferreira, A. L., Freitas, E. D. C., Goldschmidt, A., Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., González-Díaz, D., Gutiérrez, R. M., Hauptman, J., Henriques, C. A. O., Hernandez, A. I., Morata, J. A. Hernando, Herrero, V., Jones, B. J. P., Laing, A., Lebrun, P., Liubarsky, I., López-March, N., Losada, M., Martín-Albo, J., Martínez-Lema, G., Martínez, A., McDonald, A. D., Monrabal, F., Monteiro, C. M. B., Mora, F. J., Moutinho, L. M., Vidal, J. Muñoz, Musti, M., Nebot-Guinot, M., Novella, P., Nygren, D. R., Palmeiro, B., Para, A., Querol, M., Renner, J., Ripoll, L., Rodríguez, o J., Rogers, L., Santos, F. P., Santos, J. M. F. dos, Simón, A., Sofka, C., Sorel, M., Stiegler, T., Toledo, p J. F., Torrent, J., Tsamalaidze, Z., Veloso, J. F. C. A., Villar, J. A., Webb, R., White, J. T., and Yahlali, N.
Subjects: Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, High Energy Physics - Experiment, Nuclear Experiment
Abstract: The Neutrino Experiment with a Xenon Time-Projection Chamber (NEXT) experiment intends to investigate the neutrinoless double beta decay of 136Xe, and therefore requires a severe suppression of potential backgrounds. An extensive material screening and selection process was undertaken to quantify the radioactivity of the materials used in the experiment. Separate energy and tracking readout planes using different sensors allow us to combine the measurement of the topological signature of the event for background discrimination with the energy resolution optimization. The design of radiopure readout planes, in direct contact with the gas detector medium, was especially challenging since the required components typically have activities too large for experiments demanding ultra-low background conditions. After studying the tracking plane, here the radiopurity control of the energy plane is presented, mainly based on gamma-ray spectroscopy using ultra-low background germanium detectors at the Laboratorio Subterr\'aneo de Canfranc (Spain). All the available units of the selected model of photomultiplier have been screened together with most of the components for the bases, enclosures and windows. According to these results for the activity of the relevant radioisotopes, the selected components of the energy plane would give a contribution to the overall background level in the region of interest of at most 2.4 x 10-4 counts keV-1 kg-1 y-1, satisfying the sensitivity requirements of the NEXT experiment., Comment: Final version for publication
Published: 2017
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38. Application and performance of an ML-EM algorithm in NEXT

Author: NEXT Collaboration, Simón, A., Lerche, C., Monrabal, F., Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., Álvarez, V., Azevedo, C. D. R., Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., Borges, F. I. G. M., Botas, A., Cárcel, S., Carrión, J. V., Cebrián, S., Conde, C. A. N., Díaz, J., Diesburg, M., Escada, J., Esteve, R., Felkai, R., Fernandes, L. M. P., Ferrario, P., Ferreira, A. L., Freitas, E. D. C., Goldschmidt, A., González-Díaz, D., Gutiérrez, R. M., Hauptman, J., Henriques, C. A. O., Hernandez, A. I., Morata, J. A. Hernando, Herrero, V., Jones, B. J. P., Labarga, L., Laing, A., Lebrun, P., Liubarsky, I., López-March, N., Losada, M., Martín-Albo, J., Martínez-Lema, G., Martínez, A., McDonald, A. D., Monteiro, C. M. B., Mora, F. J., Moutinho, L. M., Vidal, J. Muñoz, Musti, M., Nebot-Guinot, M., Novella, P., Nygren, D. R., Palmeiro, B., Para, A., Pérez, J., Querol, M., Renner, J., Ripoll, L., Rodríguez, J., Rogers, L., Santos, F. P., Santos, J. M. F. dos, Sofka, C., Sorel, M., Stiegler, T., Toledo, J. F., Torrent, J., Tsamalaidze, Z., Veloso, J. F. C. A., Webb, R., White, J. T., and Yahlali, N.
Subjects: Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, High Energy Physics - Experiment
Abstract: The goal of the NEXT experiment is the observation of neutrinoless double beta decay in $^{136}$Xe using a gaseous xenon TPC with electroluminescent amplification and specialized photodetector arrays for calorimetry and tracking. The NEXT Collaboration is exploring a number of reconstruction algorithms to exploit the full potential of the detector. This paper describes one of them: the Maximum Likelihood Expectation Maximization (ML-EM) method, a generic iterative algorithm to find maximum-likelihood estimates of parameters that has been applied to solve many different types of complex inverse problems. In particular, we discuss a bi-dimensional version of the method in which the photosensor signals integrated over time are used to reconstruct a transverse projection of the event. First results show that, when applied to detector simulation data, the algorithm achieves nearly optimal energy resolution (better than 0.5% FWHM at the Q value of $^{136}$Xe) for events distributed over the full active volume of the TPC., Comment: 19 pages, 16 figures
Published: 2017
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39. Secondary scintillation yield of Xenon with sub-percent levels of CO2 additive: efficiently reducing electron diffusion in HPXe optical TPCs for rare-event detection

Author: Henriques, C. A. O., Freitas, E. D. C., Azevedo, C. D. R., González-Díaz, D., Mano, R. D. P., Jorge, M. R., Fernandes, L. M. P., Monteiro, C. M. B., Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., Álvarez, V., Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., Borges, F. I. G. M., Botas, A., Cárcel, S., Carrión, J. V., Cebrián, S., Conde, C. A. N., Díaz, J., Diesburg, M., Escada, J., Esteve, R., Felkai, R., Ferrario, P., Ferreira, A. L., Goldschmidt, A., Gutiérrez, R. M., Hauptman, J., Hernandez, A. I., Morata, J. A. Hernando, Herrero, V., Jones, B. J. P., Labarga, L., Laing, A., Lebrun, P., Liubarsky, I., López-March, N., Losada, M., Martín-Albo, J., Martínez-Lema, G., Martínez, A., McDonald, A. D., Monrabal, F., Mora, F. J., Moutinho, L. M., Vidal, J. Muñoz, Musti, M., Nebot-Guinot, M., Novella, P., Nygren, D. R., Palmeiro, B., Para, A., Pérez, J., Querol, M., Renner, J., Ripoll, L., Rodríguez, J., Rogers, L., Santos, F. P., Santos, J. M. F. dos, Simón, A., Sofka, C., Sorel, M., Stiegler, T., Toledo, J. F., Torrent, J., Tsamalaidze, Z., Veloso, J. F. C. A., Webb, R., White, J. T., and Yahlali, N.
Subjects: Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors
Abstract: We have measured the electroluminescence (EL) yield of Xe-CO2 mixtures, with sub-percent CO2 concentrations. We demonstrate that the EL production is still high in these mixtures, 70% and 35% relative to that produced in pure xenon, for CO2 concentrations around 0.05% and 0.1%, respectively. The contribution of the statistical fluctuations in EL production to the energy resolution increases with increasing CO2 concentration and, for our gas proportional scintillation counter, it is smaller than the contribution of the Fano factor for concentrations below 0.1% CO2. Xe-CO2 mixtures are important alternatives to pure xenon in TPCs based on EL signal amplification with applications in the important field of rare event detection such as directional dark matter, double electron capture and double beta decay detection. The addition of CO2 to pure xenon at the level of 0.05-0.1% can reduce significantly the scale of electron diffusion from 10 mm/sqrt(m) to 2.5 mm/sqrt(m), with high impact on the HPXe TPC discrimination efficiency of the events through pattern recognition of the topology of primary ionisation trails.
Published: 2017

40. Background rejection in NEXT using deep neural networks

Author: NEXT Collaboration, Renner, J., Farbin, A., Vidal, J. Muñoz, Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., Botas, A., Ferrario, P., Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., Álvarez, V., Azevedo, C. D. R., Borges, F. I. G., Cárcel, S., Carrión, J. V., Cebrián, S., Cervera, A., Conde, C. A. N., Díaz, J., Diesburg, M., Esteve, R., Fernandes, L. M. P., Ferreira, A. L., Freitas, E. D. C., Goldschmidt, A., González-Díaz, D., Gutiérrez, R. M., Hauptman, J., Henriques, C. A. O., Morata, J. A. Hernando, Herrero, V., Jones, B., Labarga, L., Laing, A., Lebrun, P., Liubarsky, I., López-March, N., Lorca, D., Losada, M., Martín-Albo, J., Martínez-Lema, G., Martínez, A., Monrabal, F., Monteiro, C. M. B., Mora, F. J., Moutinho, L. M., Nebot-Guinot, M., Novella, P., Nygren, D., Para, A., Pérez, J., Querol, M., Ripoll, L., Rodríguez, J., Santos, F. P., Santos, J. M. F. dos, Serra, L., Shuman, D., Simón, A., Sofka, C., Sorel, M., Toledo, J. F., Torrent, J., Tsamalaidze, Z., Veloso, J. F. C. A., White, J., Webb, R., Yahlali, N., and Yepes-Ramírez, H.
Subjects: Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, High Energy Physics - Experiment
Abstract: We investigate the potential of using deep learning techniques to reject background events in searches for neutrinoless double beta decay with high pressure xenon time projection chambers capable of detailed track reconstruction. The differences in the topological signatures of background and signal events can be learned by deep neural networks via training over many thousands of events. These networks can then be used to classify further events as signal or background, providing an additional background rejection factor at an acceptable loss of efficiency. The networks trained in this study performed better than previous methods developed based on the use of the same topological signatures by a factor of 1.2 to 1.6, and there is potential for further improvement., Comment: 21 pages, 9 figures; formatting changes
Published: 2016
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41. PETALO, a new concept for a Positron Emission TOF Apparatus based on Liquid xenOn

Author: Benlloch-Rodriguez, J. M.
Subjects: Physics - Medical Physics
Abstract: This master thesis presents a new type of Positron Emission TOF Apparatus using Liquid xenOn (PETALO). The detector is based in the Liquid Xenon Scintillating Cell (LXSC). The cell is a box filled with liquid xenon (LXe) whose transverse dimensions are chosen to optimize packing and with a thickness optimized to contain a large fraction of the incoming photons. The entry and exit faces of the box (relative to the incoming gammas direction) are instrumented with large silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs), coated with a wavelength shifter, tetraphenyl butadiene (TPB). The non-instrumented faces are covered by reflecting Teflon coated with TPB. In this thesis we show that the LXSC can display an energy resolution of 5% FWHM, much better than that of conventional solid scintillators such as LSO/LYSO. The LXSC can measure the interaction point of the incoming photon with a resolution in the three coordinates of 1 mm. The very fast scintillation time of LXe (2 ns) and the availability of suitable sensors and electronics permits a coincidence resolution time (CRT) in the range of 100-200 ps, again much better than any current PET-TOF system. The LXSC constitutes the core of a high-sensitivity, nuclear magnetic resonance compatible, PET device, with enhanced Time Of Flight (TOF) sensitivity.
Published: 2016

42. Investigation of the Coincidence Resolving Time performance of a PET scanner based on liquid xenon: A Monte Carlo study

Author: Gomez-Cadenas, J. J, Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., Ferrario, P., Monrabal, F., Rodríguez, J., and Toledo, J. F.
Subjects: Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, High Energy Physics - Experiment
Abstract: The measurement of the time of flight of the two 511 keV gammas recorded in coincidence in a PET scanner provides an effective way of reducing the random background and therefore increases the scanner sensitivity, provided that the coincidence resolving time (CRT) of the gammas is sufficiently good. The best commercial PET-TOF system today (based in LYSO crystals and digital SiPMs), is the VEREOS of Philips, boasting a CRT of 316 ps (FWHM). In this paper we present a Monte Carlo investigation of the CRT performance of a PET scanner exploiting the scintillating properties of liquid xenon. We find that an excellent CRT of 70 ps (depending on the PDE of the sensor) can be obtained if the scanner is instrumented with silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) sensitive to the ultraviolet light emitted by xenon. Alternatively, a CRT of 160 ps can be obtained instrumenting the scanner with (much cheaper) blue-sensitive SiPMs coated with a suitable wavelength shifter. These results show the excellent time of flight capabilities of a PET device based in liquid xenon., Comment: Accepted by JINST
Published: 2016
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43. Sensitivity of the NEXT experiment to 124-Xe double electron capture

Author: Universitat Politècnica de València. Instituto de Instrumentación para Imagen Molecular - Institut d'Instrumentació per a Imatge Molecular, Universitat Politècnica de València. Departamento de Ingeniería Electrónica - Departament d'Enginyeria Electrònica, European Commission, Generalitat Valenciana, U.S. Department of Energy, AGENCIA ESTATAL DE INVESTIGACION, MINISTERIO DE ECONOMIA Y EMPRESA, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal, Martinez-Lema, G., Martinez-Vara, M., Sorel, M., Adams, C., Álvarez-Puerta, Vicente, Arazi, L., Arnquist, I.J., Azevedo, C. D. R., Bailey, K., Ballester Merelo, Francisco José, Benlloch-Rodriguez, J. M., Borges, F. I. G. M., Byrnes, N., Carcel, S., Carrión, J. V., Esteve Bosch, Raul, Herrero Bosch, Vicente, Mora Mas, Francisco José, Rodriguez-Samaniego, Javier, Toledo Alarcón, José Francisco, Universitat Politècnica de València. Instituto de Instrumentación para Imagen Molecular - Institut d'Instrumentació per a Imatge Molecular, Universitat Politècnica de València. Departamento de Ingeniería Electrónica - Departament d'Enginyeria Electrònica, European Commission, Generalitat Valenciana, U.S. Department of Energy, AGENCIA ESTATAL DE INVESTIGACION, MINISTERIO DE ECONOMIA Y EMPRESA, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal, Martinez-Lema, G., Martinez-Vara, M., Sorel, M., Adams, C., Álvarez-Puerta, Vicente, Arazi, L., Arnquist, I.J., Azevedo, C. D. R., Bailey, K., Ballester Merelo, Francisco José, Benlloch-Rodriguez, J. M., Borges, F. I. G. M., Byrnes, N., Carcel, S., Carrión, J. V., Esteve Bosch, Raul, Herrero Bosch, Vicente, Mora Mas, Francisco José, Rodriguez-Samaniego, Javier, and Toledo Alarcón, José Francisco
Abstract: [EN] Double electron capture by proton-rich nuclei is a second-order nuclear process analogous to double beta decay. Despite their similarities, the decay signature is quite di erent, potentially providing a new channel to measure the hypothesized neutrinoless mode of these decays. The Standard-Model-allowed two-neutrino double electron capture has been predicted for a number of isotopes, but only observed in 78Kr, 130Ba and, recently, 124Xe. The sensitivity to this decay establishes a benchmark for the ultimate experimental goal, namely the potential to discover also the lepton-number-violating neutrinoless version of this process. Here we report on the current sensitivity of the NEXT-White detector to 124Xe 2 ECEC and on the extrapolation to NEXT-100. Using simulated data for the 2 ECEC signal and real data from NEXT-White operated with 124Xe-depleted gas as background, we de ne an optimal event selection that maximizes the NEXT-White sensitivity. We estimate that, for NEXT-100 operated with xenon gas isotopically enriched with 1 kg of 124Xe and for a 5-year run, a sensitivity to the two-neutroni double electron capture half-life of 6x10exp22 years (at 90% con dence level) or better can be reached.
Published: 2021

44. Demonstration of background rejection using deep convolutional neural networks in the NEXT experiment

Author: Universitat Politècnica de València. Instituto de Instrumentación para Imagen Molecular - Institut d'Instrumentació per a Imatge Molecular, Universitat Politècnica de València. Departamento de Ingeniería Electrónica - Departament d'Enginyeria Electrònica, European Commission, Generalitat Valenciana, U.S. Department of Energy, AGENCIA ESTATAL DE INVESTIGACION, MINISTERIO DE ECONOMIA Y EMPRESA, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal, Fundació Bancària Caixa d'Estalvis i Pensions de Barcelona, Kekic, M., Adams, C., Woodruff, K., Renner, J., Church, E., Del Tutto, M., Hernando Morata, J. A., Gomez-Cadenas, J. J., Álvarez-Puerta, Vicente, Arazi, L., Arnquist, I.J., Azevedo, C. D. R., Bailey, K., Ballester Merelo, Francisco José, Benlloch-Rodriguez, J. M., Esteve Bosch, Raul, Herrero Bosch, Vicente, Mora Mas, Francisco José, Rodriguez-Samaniego, Javier, Toledo Alarcón, José Francisco, Universitat Politècnica de València. Instituto de Instrumentación para Imagen Molecular - Institut d'Instrumentació per a Imatge Molecular, Universitat Politècnica de València. Departamento de Ingeniería Electrónica - Departament d'Enginyeria Electrònica, European Commission, Generalitat Valenciana, U.S. Department of Energy, AGENCIA ESTATAL DE INVESTIGACION, MINISTERIO DE ECONOMIA Y EMPRESA, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal, Fundació Bancària Caixa d'Estalvis i Pensions de Barcelona, Kekic, M., Adams, C., Woodruff, K., Renner, J., Church, E., Del Tutto, M., Hernando Morata, J. A., Gomez-Cadenas, J. J., Álvarez-Puerta, Vicente, Arazi, L., Arnquist, I.J., Azevedo, C. D. R., Bailey, K., Ballester Merelo, Francisco José, Benlloch-Rodriguez, J. M., Esteve Bosch, Raul, Herrero Bosch, Vicente, Mora Mas, Francisco José, Rodriguez-Samaniego, Javier, and Toledo Alarcón, José Francisco
Abstract: [EN] Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are widely used state-of-the-art computer vision tools that are becoming increasingly popular in high-energy physics. In this paper, we attempt to understand the potential of CNNs for event classification in the NEXT experiment, which will search for neutrinoless double-beta decay in Xe-136. To do so, we demonstrate the usage of CNNs for the identification of electron-positron pair production events, which exhibit a topology similar to that of a neutrinoless double-beta decay event. These events were produced in the NEXT-White high-pressure xenon TPC using 2.6 MeV gamma rays from a Th-228 calibration source. We train a network on Monte Carlo-simulated events and show that, by applying on-the-fly data augmentation, the network can be made robust against differences between simulation and data. The use of CNNs offers significant improvement in signal efficiency and background rejection when compared to previous non-CNN-based analyses
Published: 2021

45. Radio Frequency and DC High Voltage Breakdown of High Pressure Helium, Argon, and Xenon

Author: Universitat Politècnica de València. Departamento de Ingeniería Electrónica - Departament d'Enginyeria Electrònica, Universitat Politècnica de València. Instituto de Instrumentación para Imagen Molecular - Institut d'Instrumentació per a Imatge Molecular, Agencia Estatal de Investigación, Ministerio de Economía y Empresa, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Woodruff, K., Baeza-Rubio, J., Huerta, D., Jones, B. J. P., McDonald, A. D., Norman, L., Nygren, D. R., Adams, C., Álvarez-Puerta, Vicente, Arazi, L., Arnquist, I. J., Azevedo, C. D. R., Bailey, K., Ballester Merelo, Francisco José, Benlloch-Rodriguez, J. M., Esteve Bosch, Raul, Herrero Bosch, Vicente, Mora Mas, Francisco José, Rodriguez-Samaniego, Javier, Toledo Alarcón, José Francisco, Universitat Politècnica de València. Departamento de Ingeniería Electrónica - Departament d'Enginyeria Electrònica, Universitat Politècnica de València. Instituto de Instrumentación para Imagen Molecular - Institut d'Instrumentació per a Imatge Molecular, Agencia Estatal de Investigación, Ministerio de Economía y Empresa, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Woodruff, K., Baeza-Rubio, J., Huerta, D., Jones, B. J. P., McDonald, A. D., Norman, L., Nygren, D. R., Adams, C., Álvarez-Puerta, Vicente, Arazi, L., Arnquist, I. J., Azevedo, C. D. R., Bailey, K., Ballester Merelo, Francisco José, Benlloch-Rodriguez, J. M., Esteve Bosch, Raul, Herrero Bosch, Vicente, Mora Mas, Francisco José, Rodriguez-Samaniego, Javier, and Toledo Alarcón, José Francisco
Abstract: [EN] Motivated by the possibility of guiding daughter ions from double beta decay events to single-ion sensors for barium tagging, the NEXT collaboration is developing a program of R&D to test radio frequency (RF) carpets for ion transport in high pressure xenon gas. This would require carpet functionality in regimes at higher pressures than have been previously reported, implying correspondingly larger electrode voltages than in existing systems. This mode of operation appears plausible for contemporary RF-carpet geometries due to the higher predicted breakdown strength of high pressure xenon relative to low pressure helium, the working medium in most existing RF carpet devices. In this paper we present the first measurements of the high voltage dielectric strength of xenon gas at high pressure and at the relevant RF frequencies for ion transport (in the 10MHz range), as well as new DC and RF measurements of the dielectric strengths of high pressure argon and helium gases at small gap sizes. We find breakdown voltages that are compatible with stable RF carpet operation given the gas, pressure, voltage, materials and geometry of interest.
Published: 2020

46. Processing of Compton events in the PETALO readout system

Author: Renner, J., primary, Benlloch-Rodriguez, J. M., additional, Carrion, J. V., additional, Gadea, R., additional, Herrero-Bosch, V., additional, Kekic, M., additional, Romo-Luque, C., additional, Ferrario, P., additional, and Gomez-Cadenas, J. J., additional
Published: 2019
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47. The Next White (NEW) detector

Author: Universitat Politècnica de València. Departamento de Ingeniería Electrónica - Departament d'Enginyeria Electrònica, Universitat Politècnica de València. Instituto de Instrumentación para Imagen Molecular - Institut d'Instrumentació per a Imatge Molecular, Generalitat Valenciana, U.S. Department of Energy, European Regional Development Fund, Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal, Monrabal, F., Gomez-Cadenas, J. J., Toledo Alarcón, José Francisco, Laing, A., Álvarez-Puerta, Vicente, Benlloch-Rodriguez, J. M., Carcel, S., Carrion, J, Esteve Bosch, Raul, Felkai, R., Herrero Bosch, Vicente, Martinez, A., Musti, M., Ouero, M., Mora Mas, Francisco José, Universitat Politècnica de València. Departamento de Ingeniería Electrónica - Departament d'Enginyeria Electrònica, Universitat Politècnica de València. Instituto de Instrumentación para Imagen Molecular - Institut d'Instrumentació per a Imatge Molecular, Generalitat Valenciana, U.S. Department of Energy, European Regional Development Fund, Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal, Monrabal, F., Gomez-Cadenas, J. J., Toledo Alarcón, José Francisco, Laing, A., Álvarez-Puerta, Vicente, Benlloch-Rodriguez, J. M., Carcel, S., Carrion, J, Esteve Bosch, Raul, Felkai, R., Herrero Bosch, Vicente, Martinez, A., Musti, M., Ouero, M., and Mora Mas, Francisco José
Abstract: [EN] Conceived to host 5 kg of xenón at a pressure of 15 bar in the ¿ducial volume,the NEXTWhite (NEW)apparatus is currently the largest high pressure xenon gas TPC using electroluminescent ampli¿cation in the world. It is also a 1:2 scale model of the NEXT-100 detector scheduled to start searching for ßß0¿ decays in 136Xe in 2019. Both detectors measure the energy of the event using a plane of photomultipliers located behind a transparent cathode. They can also reconstruct the trajectories of charged tracks in the dense gas of the TPC with the help of a plane of silicon photomultipliers located behind the anode. A sophisticated gas system, common to both detectors, allows the high gas purity needed to guarantee a long electron lifetime. NEXT-White has been operating since October 2017 at the Canfranc Underground Laboratory (LSC), in Spain. This paper describes the detector and associated infrastructures.
Published: 2018

48. Radiopurity assessment of the energy readout for the NEXT double beta decay experiment

Author: Universitat Politècnica de València. Departamento de Ingeniería Electrónica - Departament d'Enginyeria Electrònica, Universitat Politècnica de València. Instituto de Instrumentación para Imagen Molecular - Institut d'Instrumentació per a Imatge Molecular, Generalitat Valenciana, U.S. Department of Energy, European Research Council, University of Texas at Arlington, European Regional Development Fund, Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad, Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Cebrian, S., Perez, J., Bandac, I., Labarga, L., Álvarez-Puerta, Vicente, Azevedo, C. D. R., Benlloch-Rodriguez, J. M., Borges, F. I. G. M., Botas, A., Carcel, S., Carrión, J.V., Conde, C. A. N., Diaz, J., Diesburg, M., Escada, J., Esteve Bosch, Raul, Herrero Bosch, Vicente, Mora Mas, Francisco José, Querol-Segura, Marc, Rodriguez-Samaniego, Javier, Toledo Alarcón, José Francisco, Universitat Politècnica de València. Departamento de Ingeniería Electrónica - Departament d'Enginyeria Electrònica, Universitat Politècnica de València. Instituto de Instrumentación para Imagen Molecular - Institut d'Instrumentació per a Imatge Molecular, Generalitat Valenciana, U.S. Department of Energy, European Research Council, University of Texas at Arlington, European Regional Development Fund, Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad, Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Cebrian, S., Perez, J., Bandac, I., Labarga, L., Álvarez-Puerta, Vicente, Azevedo, C. D. R., Benlloch-Rodriguez, J. M., Borges, F. I. G. M., Botas, A., Carcel, S., Carrión, J.V., Conde, C. A. N., Diaz, J., Diesburg, M., Escada, J., Esteve Bosch, Raul, Herrero Bosch, Vicente, Mora Mas, Francisco José, Querol-Segura, Marc, Rodriguez-Samaniego, Javier, and Toledo Alarcón, José Francisco
Abstract: [EN] The "Neutrino Experiment with a Xenon Time-Projection Chamber" (NEXT) experiment intends to investigate the neutrinoless double beta decay of 136Xe, and therefore requires a severe suppression of potential backgrounds. An extensive material screening and selection process was undertaken to quantify the radioactivity of the materials used in the experiment. Separate energy and tracking readout planes using different sensors allow us to combine the measurement of the topological signature of the event for background discrimination with the energy resolution optimization. The design of radiopure readout planes, in direct contact with the gas detector medium, was especially challenging since the required components typically have activities too large for experiments demanding ultra-low background conditions. After studying the tracking plane, here the radiopurity control of the energy plane is presented, mainly based on gamma-ray spectroscopy using ultra-low background germanium detectors at the Laboratorio Subterráneo de Canfranc (Spain). All the available units of the selected model of photomultiplier have been screened together with most of the components for the bases, enclosures and windows. According to these results for the activity of the relevant radioisotopes, the selected components of the energy plane would give a contribution to the overall background level in the region of interest of at most 2.4 × 10¿4 counts per keV, kg and year, satisfying the sensitivity requirements of the NEXT experiment.
Published: 2017

49. Investigation of the CRT performance of a PET scanner based in liquid xenon: a Monte Carlo study

Author: Universitat Politècnica de València. Escuela Politécnica Superior de Gandia - Escola Politècnica Superior de Gandia, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Generalitat Valenciana, European Regional Development Fund, European Commission, Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., Benlloch-Rodriguez, J. M., Ferrario, Paola, Monrabal, F., Rodriguez-Samaniego, Javier, Toledo Alarcón, José Francisco, Universitat Politècnica de València. Escuela Politécnica Superior de Gandia - Escola Politècnica Superior de Gandia, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Generalitat Valenciana, European Regional Development Fund, European Commission, Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., Benlloch-Rodriguez, J. M., Ferrario, Paola, Monrabal, F., Rodriguez-Samaniego, Javier, and Toledo Alarcón, José Francisco
Abstract: The measurement of the time of flight of the two 511 keV gammas recorded in coincidence in a PET scanner provides an effective way of reducing the random background and therefore increases the scanner sensitivity, provided that the coincidence resolving time (CRT) of the gammas is sufficiently good. Existing commercial systems based in LYSO crystals, such as the GEMINIS of Philips, reach CRT values of 600 ps (FWHM). In this paper we present a Monte Carlo investigation of the CRT performance of a PET scanner exploiting the scintillating properties of liquid xenon. We find that an excellent CRT of 60 70 ps (depending on the PDE of the sensor) can be obtained if the scanner is instrumented with silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) sensitive to the ultraviolet light emitted by xenon. Alternatively, a CRT of 120 ps can be obtained instrumenting the scanner with (much cheaper) blue-sensitive SiPMs coated with a suitable wavelength shifter. These results show the excellent time of flight capabilities of a PET device based in liquid xenon.
Published: 2016

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