https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-020-8196-z
Regular Article - Experimental Physics
Sensitivity of the DARWIN observatory to the neutrinoless double beta decay of 
Xe
1
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Bologna and INFN-Bologna, 40126, Bologna, Italy
2
LPNHE, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Université Paris Diderot, CNRS/IN2P3, 75252, Paris, France
3
Institut für Kernphysik, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, 48149, Münster, Germany
4
LIBPhys, Department of Physics, University of Coimbra, 3004-516, Coimbra, Portugal
5
Vinca Institute of Nuclear Science, University of Belgrade, Mihajla Petrovica Alasa 12-14., Belgrade, Serbia
6
Physics Department, Columbia University, 10027, New York, NY, USA
7
Physik-Institut, University of Zurich, 8057, Zurich, Switzerland
8
Physikalisches Institut, Universität Freiburg, 79104, Freiburg, Germany
9
Nikhef and the University of Amsterdam, Science Park, 1098XG, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
10
New York University Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
11
Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics, Weizmann Institute of Science, 7610001, Rehovot, Israel
12
Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, 69117, Heidelberg, Germany
13
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Purdue University, 47907, West Lafayette, IN, USA
14
Institute for Nuclear Physics (IKP), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), 76344, Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany
15
SUBATECH, IMT Atlantique, CNRS/IN2P3, Université de Nantes, 44307, Nantes, France
16
Institute of Experimental Particle Physics (ETP), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), 76344, Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany
17
Department of Physics and Chemistry, University of L’Aquila, 67100, L’Aquila, Italy
18
INFN-Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso and Gran Sasso Science Institute, 67100, L’Aquila, Italy
19
Department of Physics & Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago, 60637, Chicago, IL, USA
20
Physikalisches Institut, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
21
The Origins Project Foundation, 85020, Phoenix, AZ, USA
22
Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS/IN2P3, IJCLab, 91405, Orsay, France
23
INFN-Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso and Gran Sasso Science Institute, 67100, L’Aquila, Italy
24
Institut für Physik & Exzellenzcluster PRISMA+, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, 55099, Mainz, Germany
25
Department of Physics, Imperial Centre for Inference and Cosmology, Imperial College London, SW7 2AZ, London, UK
26
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice University, 77005, Houston, TX, USA
27
Institute for Nuclear and Particle Physics, TU Dresden, 01069, Dresden, Germany
ay
Fabian.Kuger@physik.uni-freiburg.de
Received:
7
April
2020
Accepted:
29
June
2020
Published online:
2
September
2020
The DARWIN observatory is a proposed next-generation experiment to search for particle dark matter and for the neutrinoless double beta decay of Xe. Out of its 50 t total natural xenon inventory, 40 t will be the active target of a time projection chamber which thus contains about 3.6 t of Xe. Here, we show that its projected half-life sensitivity is 
, using a fiducial volume of 5 t of natural xenon and 10 year of operation with a background rate of less than 0.2 events/(t 
year) in the energy region of interest. This sensitivity is based on a detailed Monte Carlo simulation study of the background and event topologies in the large, homogeneous target. DARWIN will be comparable in its science reach to dedicated double beta decay experiments using xenon enriched in Xe.
© The Author(s) 2020
Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
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