Recommended Citation
January 1, 2019.
Abstract
The Nuclear physics, Particle physics, Astrophysics, and Cosmology Initiative (NPAC) at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory engages in cross-disciplinary scientific collaboration projects to address fundamental questions about the origin and evolution of the Universe. The next Enriched Xenon Observatory (nEXO) is a proposed experiment to search for the rare “neutrino-less double beta decay” (0vBB) process. The observation of 0vBB decay would demonstrate lepton number violation and confirm that the neutrino is a Majorana fermion, where neutrino is identical to its antiparticle. This would have important implications for our understanding of neutrino mass and the origin of the matter-antimatter asymmetry in the universe. Since the event is so rare, the goal of this project is to analyze the characteristics and performance of the electric field within the TPC. The nEXO TPC is currently in the design phase and different TPC geometries will be studied and compared to optimize the electric field uniformity and charge collection efficiency to maximize the sensitivity of the experiment.
Mentor
Richard Saldanha
Lab site
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)
Funding Acknowledgement
The 2018 STEM Teacher and Researcher Program and this project have been made possible through support from Chevron (www.chevron.com), the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation (www.marinesanctuary.org), the National Science Foundation through the Robert Noyce Program under Grant #1836335 and 1340110, the California State University Office of the Chancellor, and California Polytechnic State University in partnership with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funders.
URL: https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/star/503