Journal of High Energy Physics (May 2025)

Search for double beta decay of 136Xe to the 0 1 + $$ {0}_1^{+} $$ excited state of 136Ba with PandaX-4T

  • The PandaX collaboration,
  • Lingyin Luo,
  • Zihao Bo,
  • Wei Chen,
  • Xun Chen,
  • Yunhua Chen,
  • Zhaokan Cheng,
  • Xiangyi Cui,
  • Yingjie Fan,
  • Deqing Fang,
  • Zhixing Gao,
  • Lisheng Geng,
  • Karl Giboni,
  • Xunan Guo,
  • Xuyuan Guo,
  • Zichao Guo,
  • Chencheng Han,
  • Ke Han,
  • Changda He,
  • Jinrong He,
  • Di Huang,
  • Houqi Huang,
  • Junting Huang,
  • Ruquan Hou,
  • Yu Hou,
  • Xiangdong Ji,
  • Xiangpan Ji,
  • Yonglin Ju,
  • Chenxiang Li,
  • Tao Li,
  • Jiafu Li,
  • Mingchuan Li,
  • Shuaijie Li,
  • Zhiyuan Li,
  • Qing Lin,
  • Jianglai Liu,
  • Congcong Lu,
  • Xiaoying Lu,
  • Yunyang Luo,
  • Wenbo Ma,
  • Yugang Ma,
  • Yajun Mao,
  • Yue Meng,
  • Xuyang Ning,
  • Binyu Pang,
  • Ningchun Qi,
  • Zhicheng Qian,
  • Xiangxiang Ren,
  • Dong Shan,
  • Xiaofeng Shang,
  • Xiyuan Shao,
  • Guofang Shen,
  • Manbin Shen,
  • Wenliang Sun,
  • Yi Tao,
  • Anqing Wang,
  • Guanbo Wang,
  • Hao Wang,
  • Jiamin Wang,
  • Lei Wang,
  • Meng Wang,
  • Qiuhong Wang,
  • Shaobo Wang,
  • Siguang Wang,
  • Wei Wang,
  • Xiuli Wang,
  • Xu Wang,
  • Zhou Wang,
  • Yuehuan Wei,
  • Weihao Wu,
  • Yuan Wu,
  • Mengjiao Xiao,
  • Xiang Xiao,
  • Kaizhi Xiong,
  • Yifan Xu,
  • Shunyu Yao,
  • Binbin Yan,
  • Xiyu Yan,
  • Yong Yang,
  • Peihua Ye,
  • Chunxu Yu,
  • Ying Yuan,
  • Zhe Yuan,
  • Youhui Yun,
  • Xinning Zeng,
  • Minzhen Zhang,
  • Peng Zhang,
  • Shibo Zhang,
  • Shu Zhang,
  • Tao Zhang,
  • Wei Zhang,
  • Yang Zhang,
  • Yingxin Zhang,
  • Yuanyuan Zhang,
  • Li Zhao,
  • Jifang Zhou,
  • Jiaxu Zhou,
  • Ning Zhou,
  • Xiaopeng Zhou,
  • Yubo Zhou,
  • Zhizhen Zhou

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP05(2025)089
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 2025, no. 5
pp. 1 – 20

Abstract

Read online

Abstract We perform a search of double beta decay of 136Xe to the excited state, 0 1 + $$ {0}_1^{+} $$ , of 136Ba (2νββ- 0 1 + $$ {0}_1^{+} $$ ), using the dual-phase xenon detector of PandaX-4T with the first 94.9-day commissioning data. The multi-site events are reconstructed up to the MeV energy scale, which helps to improve the background model significantly. The background contribution from the stainless steel platform outside PandaX-4T cryostat is evaluated for the first time. No significant evidence for 2νββ- 0 1 + $$ {0}_1^{+} $$ is observed, resulting in a lower limit on half-life of 7.5 × 1022 yr at the 90% confidence level. This is the first experimental limit on such a rare decay in a natural xenon-based detector.

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