Calorimeter development for the SuperNEMO double beta decay experiment


Abstract in English

SuperNEMO is a double-$beta$ decay experiment, which will employ the successful tracker-calorimeter technique used in the recently completed NEMO-3 experiment. SuperNEMO will implement 100 kg of double-$beta$ decay isotope, reaching a sensitivity to the neutrinoless double-$beta$ decay ($0 ubetabeta$) half-life of the order of $10^{26}$ yr, corresponding to a Majorana neutrino mass of 50-100 meV. One of the main goals and challenges of the SuperNEMO detector development programme has been to reach a calorimeter energy resolution, $Delta$E/E, around 3%/$sqrt(E)$(MeV) $sigma$, or 7%/$sqrt(E)$(MeV) FWHM (full width at half maximum), using a calorimeter composed of large volume plastic scintillator blocks coupled to photomultiplier tubes. We describe the R&D programme and the final design of the SuperNEMO calorimeter that has met this challenging goal.

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