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Search for neutrino-less quadruple beta decay and electron capture with liquid xenon detector

Research Project

Project/Area Number 18K03669
Research Category

Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)

Allocation TypeMulti-year Fund
Section一般
Review Section Basic Section 15020:Experimental studies related to particle-, nuclear-, cosmic ray and astro-physics
Research InstitutionTohoku University (2019-2020)
The University of Tokyo (2018)

Principal Investigator

Ichimura Koichi  東北大学, ニュートリノ科学研究センター, 助教 (80600064)

Project Period (FY) 2018-04-01 – 2021-03-31
Project Status Completed (Fiscal Year 2020)
Budget Amount *help
¥4,160,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥960,000)
Fiscal Year 2020: ¥390,000 (Direct Cost: ¥300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥90,000)
Fiscal Year 2019: ¥1,950,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥450,000)
Fiscal Year 2018: ¥1,820,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥420,000)
Keywordsニュートリノ / 素粒子実験 / キセノン / 4重ベータ崩壊 / 4重電子捕獲 / 四重ベータ崩壊 / 四重電子捕獲
Outline of Final Research Achievements

I have searched for the neutron-less quadruple beta decay of 136Xe in XMASS. The neutrino-less quadruple decay violates the lepton number, and the process can undergo even in the case that neutrino is a Dirac particle.XMASS is an 832 kg liquid xenon detector. Thanks to its low background event rate, and its capability of beta/gamma events separation, this neutrino-less quadruple beta decay search was conducted with high sensitivity.
No significant excess from the known background was observed and the first experimental constraint of the half-life of this decay mode was set. I reported this result at the JPS conference. The paper related to this research is under preparation. XMASS also has 124Xe isotopes that can undergo neutrino-less quadruple electron capture. To search for this process, I generated signal and background simulation data. This background simulation data can be used for other physics targets, such as dark matter searches using the whole XMASS data set.

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

キセノンを用いた実験では世界中で暗黒物質探索やニュートリノを放出しない2重ベータ崩壊事象探索などが行われているが、本研究では液体キセノンの大発光量と自己遮蔽能による低放射能環境を活かし、新たにニュートリノを放出しない4重ベータ崩壊事象探索という新しい物理探索が可能であることを示すことが出来た。本研究で生成したXMASS検出器と周りの環境中の放射性物質に由来する雑音事象のシミュレーションデータは本研究以外にも応用可能であり、暗黒物質事象探索などに既に利用されている他、将来の探索感度向上のためにはどの放射性物質起源のバックグラウンドを低減しないといけないか、といった計画検討にも活用可能である。

Report

(4 results)
  • 2020 Annual Research Report   Final Research Report ( PDF )
  • 2019 Research-status Report
  • 2018 Research-status Report
  • Research Products

    (4 results)

All 2021 2020 2019

All Journal Article (2 results) (of which Peer Reviewed: 2 results,  Open Access: 2 results) Presentation (2 results) (of which Int'l Joint Research: 1 results)

  • [Journal Article] Latest results from the XMASS experiment2021

    • Author(s)
      Ichimura Koichi
    • Journal Title

      AIP Conference Proceedings 2319, 040011 (2021)

      Volume: 2319 Pages: 040011-040011

    • DOI

      10.1063/5.0037305

    • Related Report
      2020 Annual Research Report
    • Peer Reviewed / Open Access
  • [Journal Article] A measurement of the scintillation decay time constant in liquid xenon with the XMASS-I detector2020

    • Author(s)
      Ichimura Koichi
    • Journal Title

      Journal of Physics: Conference Series

      Volume: 1468 Issue: 1 Pages: 012235-012235

    • DOI

      10.1088/1742-6596/1468/1/012235

    • Related Report
      2020 Annual Research Report
    • Peer Reviewed / Open Access
  • [Presentation] Latest results from the XMASS experiment2019

    • Author(s)
      Koichi Ichimura
    • Organizer
      14th Asia-Pacific Physics Conference
    • Related Report
      2019 Research-status Report
    • Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] XMASS実験:ニュートリノの出ない4重ベータ崩壊の探索2019

    • Author(s)
      市村晃一 他 XMASS collaboration
    • Organizer
      日本物理学会 第74回年次大会
    • Related Report
      2018 Research-status Report

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Published: 2018-04-23   Modified: 2022-01-27  

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