Searching for double beta decay with the Enriched Xenon Observatory – Carter Hall
Date: Tue. September 26th, 2006, 11:30 am-12:30 pmLocation: Rockefeller 221
Neutrinoless double beta decay has recently become a top priority for the global experimental neutrino physics program. Double beta decay has the potential to resolve the scale of the neutrino mass spectrum, and is also the only practical tool we have for understanding the particle/anti- particle nature of the neutrino. The Enriched Xenon Observatory (EXO) collaboration is developing sensitive searches for the double beta decay of Xenon-136. Our first experiment, EXO-200, will be the largest double beta decay experiment ever attempted by an order-of-magnitude, and is rapidly being constructed. We are also pursuing R and D to realize a system to tag the daughter barium nucleus of the decay using the techniques of single-ion spectroscopy. This seminar will summarize the current status of our work.