@article{f698815c07064fc0b82000a599dabc11,
title = "Measurement of the 136Xe two-neutrino double beta decay half-life via direct background subtraction in NEXT",
abstract = "We report a measurement of the half-life of the Xe136 two-neutrino double-β decay performed with a novel direct-background-subtraction technique. The analysis relies on the data collected with the NEXT-White detector operated with Xe136-enriched and Xe136-depleted xenon, as well as on the topology of double-electron tracks. With a fiducial mass of only 3.5 kg of Xe, a half-life of 2.34-0.46+0.80(stat)-0.17+0.30(sys)×1021yr is derived from the background-subtracted energy spectrum. The presented technique demonstrates the feasibility of unique background-model-independent neutrinoless double-β-decay searches.",
keywords = "nucl-ex, hep-ex, physics.ins-det",
author = "{The Next Collaboration} and P. Novella and M. Sorel and A. Us{\'o}n and C. Adams and H. Almaz{\'a}n and V. {\'A}lvarez and B. Aparicio and Aranburu, {A. I.} and L. Arazi and Arnquist, {I. J.} and S. Ayet and Azevedo, {C. D.R.} and K. Bailey and F. Ballester and Benlloch-Rodr{\'i}guez, {J. M.} and Borges, {F. I.G.M.} and S. Bounasser and N. Byrnes and S. C{\'a}rcel and Carri{\'o}n, {J. V.} and S. Cebri{\'a}n and E. Church and Conde, {C. A.N.} and T. Contreras and Coss{\'i}o, {F. P.} and Denisenko, {A. A.} and G. D{\'i}az and J. D{\'i}az and T. Dickel and J. Escada and R. Esteve and A. Fahs and R. Felkai and Fernandes, {L. M.P.} and P. Ferrario and Ferreira, {A. L.} and Foss, {F. W.} and Freitas, {E. D.C.} and Z. Freixa and J. Generowicz and A. Goldschmidt and G{\'o}mez-Cadenas, {J. J.} and R. Gonz{\'a}lez and D. Gonz{\'a}lez-D{\'i}az and R. Guenette and Guti{\'e}rrez, {R. M.} and J. Haefner and K. Hafidi and G. Mart{\'i}nez-Lema and A. Sim{\'o}n",
note = "Funding Information: The NEXT Collaboration acknowledges support from the following agencies and institutions: the European Research Council (ERC) under Grant No. 951281-BOLD; the European Union's Framework Programme for Research and Innovation Horizon 2020 (2014–2020) under Grant No. 957202-HIDDEN; the MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 of Spain and ERDF “A way of making Europe” under Grant No. RTI2018-095979, the Severo Ochoa Program Grant No. CEX2018-000867-S, and the Mar{\'i}a de Maeztu Program Grant No. MDM-2016-0692; the Generalitat Valenciana of Spain under Grants No. PROMETEO/2021/087 and No. CIDEGENT/2019/049; the Portuguese FCT under Project No. UID/FIS/04559/2020 to fund the activities of LIBPhys-UC; the Pazy Foundation (Israel) under Grants No. 877040 and No. 877041; the U.S. Department of Energy under Contracts No. DE-AC02-06CH11357 (Argonne National Laboratory), No. DE-AC02-07CH11359 (Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory), No. DE-FG02-13ER42020 (Texas A&M), No. DE-SC0019054 (Texas Arlington), and No. DE-SC0019223 (Arlington, TX); the U.S. National Science Foundation under Grant No. CHE 2004111; and the Robert A. Welch Foundation under Grant No. Y-2031-20200401. D.G.D. acknowledges support from the Ram{\'o}n y Cajal program (Spain) under Contract No. RYC-2015-18820. Finally, we are grateful to the Laboratorio Subterr{\'a}neo de Canfranc for hosting and supporting the NEXT experiment. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022 American Physical Society.",
year = "2021",
month = nov,
day = "22",
doi = "10.1103/PhysRevC.105.055501",
language = "English",
volume = "105",
journal = "Physical Review C",
issn = "2469-9985",
publisher = "American Physical Society",
number = "5",
}