New publication: Simulation of charge readout with segmented tiles in nEXO

The nEXO time projection chamber (TPC) will be equipped with charge collection tiles to form the anode. In a recently published paper, the charge reconstruction performance of this anode design was studied with a dedicated simulation package. A multi-variate method and a deep neural network were developed to distinguish simulated neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ) signals from backgrounds arising from trace levels of natural radioactivity in the detector materials. These simulations indicate that the nEXO TPC with charge-collection tiles shows promising capability to discriminate the 0νββ signal from backgrounds. The estimated half-life sensitivity for 0νββ decay is improved by ~20 (32)% with the multi-variate (deep neural network) methods considered in this paper, relative to the sensitivity estimated in the nEXO pre-conceptual design report.

[Z. Li et al, Simulation of charge readout with segmented tiles in nEXO, JINST 14, P09020 (2019), doi: 10.1088/1748-0221/14/09/P09020.]