Glenn Richardson (Yale) - Probing the Universe with 136Xe: The Physics Reach of nEXO

Glenn Richardson (Yale) 

nEXO is a proposed 5-tonne liquid xenon time projection chamber designed to search for neutrinoless double beta decay of $^{136}$Xe with a half-life sensitivity better than $10^{28}$ years. Observation of this rare, Standard Model–forbidden process would provide direct evidence of new physics and could help address several open questions, including the origin of the matter–antimatter asymmetry in the universe.

The first part of this talk will focus on recent work to develop and prototype the charge readout modules for nEXO, which will be key to enabling energy reconstruction and signal/background discrimination in nEXO's analysis. The second part will highlight efforts to expand the physics program of nEXO by using charged-current interactions ($\nu_e + ^{136}$Xe $\rightarrow$ $^{136}$Cs$^* + e^-$) to make background-free measurements of solar neutrinos and fermionic dark matter. Finally, I will discuss preliminary work done at TRIUMF to measure additional nuclear structure properties of $^{136}$Cs, which will provide crucial input for both these efforts.