Ton-scale Xenon Gas TPC for 0νββ Search at Atmospheric Pressure
Abstract
We explore aspects of an unorthodox ton-scale xenon gas time projection chamber detector operated at normal temperature and pressure (NTP), designed for 0νββ discovery at ∼1027 year sensitivity. At fixed active mass, a greater transparency to γ-ray backgrounds and better track clarity exists at NTP relative to higher density. Operation at NTP also alleviates difficulties with pressure containment and significantly reduces HV requirements. With metre-scale electron tracks at a few MeV, event topology can be used to efficiently reject the copious γ-ray backgrounds by factors ranging from 550--1200, largely compensating for the greater surface area of the detector. Event topology is captured from anode plane signals combined with sensing the secondary ion component arriving at the cathode plane. A molecular gas additive limits diffusion of the secondary electron tracks to below a cm and provides stable proportional avalanche gain. An energy resolution δE/E ≤ 1\% FWHM seems possible. A 100 kg scale demonstrator for this detector technology could lead directly to a ton-scale search.
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BibTeX
@misc{mei2026tonscale,
title = {{Ton-scale Xenon Gas TPC for $0νββ$ Search at Atmospheric Pressure}},
author = {Y. Mei and K. Mistry and D. R. Nygren},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.07378},
eprint = {2609.07378},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.07378},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Ton-scale Xenon Gas TPC for 0νββ Search at Atmospheric Pressure
AU - Y. Mei
AU - K. Mistry
AU - D. R. Nygren
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/07
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.07378
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.07378
AB - We explore aspects of an unorthodox ton-scale xenon gas time projection chamber detector operated at normal temperature and pressure (NTP), designed for 0νββ discovery at ∼10^27 year sensitivity. At fixed active mass, a greater transparency to γ-ray backgrounds and better track clarity exists at NTP relative to higher density. Operation at NTP also alleviates difficulties with pressure containment and significantly reduces HV requirements. With metre-scale electron tracks at a few MeV, event topology can be used to efficiently reject the copious γ-ray backgrounds by factors ranging from 550--1200, largely compensating for the greater surface area of the detector. Event topology is captured from anode plane signals combined with sensing the secondary ion component arriving at the cathode plane. A molecular gas additive limits diffusion of the secondary electron tracks to below a cm and provides stable proportional avalanche gain. An energy resolution δE/E ≤ 1\% FWHM seems possible. A 100 kg scale demonstrator for this detector technology could lead directly to a ton-scale search.
ER -