The NEXT Experiment: A Closer Look

The NEXT collaboration is building a 100 kg scale detector for neutrinoless double beta decay searches. The NEXT detector is a gaseous Time Projection Chamber (TPC) operating with xenon enriched at 90% in the Xe-136 isotope. Phase-I of the NEXT-100 detector, NEXT-White (NEW), is currently operating. With about half of the NEXT-100 linear dimensions (about 10 kg of xenon), NEW has the right size for demonstrating and fully understanding the different technological solutions to be implemented in NEXT-100, while keeping the number of sensors at a reasonable level. Furthermore, NEW is the first NEXT detector that is built with highly radio pure materials and that it will be operating underground at the Laboratorio Subterráneo de Canfranc (LSC). Its operation will permit a first in-situ measurement of the backgrounds to be expected in NEXT-100. In my talk I will describe the details of the NEW detector including sensors, gas system and field cage, as well as presenting the first preliminary results.