Determination of Double Beta Decay Half-Life of ¹³⁶ Xe with the PandaX-4T Natural Xenon Detector

Abstract

Precise measurement of two-neutrino double beta decay (DBD) half-life is an important step for the searches of Majorana neutrinos with neutrinoless double beta decay. We report the measurement of DBD half-life of ¹³⁶Xe using the PandaX-4T dual-phase Time Projection Chamber (TPC) with 3.7-tonne natural xenon and the first 94.9-day physics data release. The background model in the fiducial volume is well constrained in situ by events in the outer active region. With a ¹³⁶Xe exposure of 15.5 kg-year, we establish the half-life as 2.27 ± 0.03(<i>stat.</i>) ± 0.10(<i>syst.</i>) × 10²¹ years. This is the first DBD half-life measurement with natural xenon and demonstrates the physics capability of a large-scale liquid xenon TPC in the field of rare event searches.