Particle and Astroparticle Physics Seminar

Searching for Majorana neutrinos with NEXT

Roxanne Guenette

University of Manchester

Neutrinos are the only particles of the Standard Model that could be of Majorana nature, a characteristic that would give considerable strength to theories that propose to explain the mass of these elusive particles and that intend to explain the matter-antimatter asymmetry. After reviewing this intriguing property of neutrinos, I will explain how searching for neutrinoless double beta decays with the NEXT experiment could give us a unique opportunity to discover a Majorana neutrino. The detector technology, a Xenon High Pressure Time Projection Chamber, offers several key advantages, including excellent energy resolution and powerful event classification based on track topology. After reviewing the fundamentals of the experiment, I will highlight results from the NEXT program that have established the technology, and I will discuss the status of NEXT-100 that is currently under commissioning. I will also present the prospects for a ton-scale experiment and how some technological breakthroughs could transform the next generation of detectors by enabling Ba tagging.