Sensitivity of the DARWIN observatory to the neutrinoless double beta decay of $^{136}$Xe

F. Agostini , S.E.M. Ahmed Maouloud (1) , L. Althueser , F. Amaro , B. Antunovic , E. Aprile , L. Baudis , D. Baur , Y. Biondi , A. Bismark , P.A. Breur , A. Brown , G. Bruno , R. Budnik , C. Capelli , J. Cardoso , D. Cichon , M. Clark , A.P. Colijn , J.J. Cuenca-García , Jean-Pierre Cussonneau (2) , M.P. Decowski , A. Depoian , J. Dierle , P. Di Gangi , A. Di Giovanni , Sara Diglio (2) , J.M.F. dos Santos , G. Drexlin , K. Eitel , R. Engel , A.D. Ferella , H. Fischer , M. Galloway , F. Gao , F. Girard , F. Glück , L. Grandi , R. Grössle , R. Gumbsheimer , S. Hansmann-Menzemer , F. Jörg , G. Khundzakishvili , A. Kopec , F. Kuger , L.M. Krauss , H. Landsman , R.F. Lang , S. Lindemann , M. Lindner , J.A.M. Lopes , A. Loya Villalpando , C. Macolino (3) , A. Manfredini , T. Marrodán Undagoitia , Julien Masbou (2) , E. Masson (3) , P. Meinhardt , S. Milutinovic , A. Molinario , C.M.B. Monteiro , M. Murra , U.G. Oberlack , M. Pandurovic , R. Peres , J. Pienaar , M. Pierre (2) , V. Pizzella , J. Qin , D. Ramírez García , S. Reichard , N. Rupp , P. Sanchez-Lucas , G. Sartorelli , D. Schulte , M. Schumann , L. Scotto Lavina (1) , M. Selvi , M. Silva , H. Simgen , M. Steidl , A. Terliuk , C. Therreau (2) , Dominique Thers (2) , K. Thieme , R. Trotta , C.D. Tunnell , K. Valerius , G. Volta , D. Vorkapic , C. Weinheimer , C. Wittweg , J. Wolf , J.P. Zopounidis (1) , K. Zuber

1 LPNHE (UMR_7585) - Laboratoire de Physique Nucléaire et de Hautes Énergies
2 SUBATECH - Laboratoire de physique subatomique et des technologies associées
3 IJCLab - Laboratoire de Physique des 2 Infinis Irène Joliot-Curie

The DARWIN observatory is a proposed next-generation experiment to search for particle dark matter and for the neutrinoless double beta decay of $^{136}$Xe. Out of its 50 t total natural xenon inventory, 40 t will be the active target of a time projection chamber which thus contains about 3.6 t of $^{136}$Xe. Here, we show that its projected half-life sensitivity is $2.4\times {10}^{27}\,{\hbox {year}}$, using a fiducial volume of 5 t of natural xenon and 10 year of operation with a background rate of less than 0.2 events/(t $\cdot $ year) in the energy region of interest. This sensitivity is based on a detailed Monte Carlo simulation study of the background and event topologies in the large, homogeneous target. DARWIN will be comparable in its science reach to dedicated double beta decay experiments using xenon enriched in $^{136}$Xe.

Mots clés: activity report; double-beta decay: (0neutrino); numerical calculations: Monte Carlo; sensitivity; xenon: nuclide; time projection chamber; dark matter: detector; proposed experiment

Domaines: Instrumentations et Détecteurs [physics.ins-det]; Physique des Hautes Energies - Expérience [hep-ex]; Physique Nucléaire Expérimentale [nucl-ex]

F. Agostini, S.E.M. Ahmed Maouloud, L. Althueser, F. Amaro, B. Antunovic, et al.. Sensitivity of the DARWIN observatory to the neutrinoless double beta decay of $^{136}$Xe. European Physical Journal C: Particles and Fields, 2020, 80 (9), pp.808. ⟨10.1140/epjc/s10052-020-8196-z⟩. ⟨hal-02550182⟩