We present an improved search for neutrinoless double-beta (0νββ) decay of ^{136}Xe in the KamLAND-Zen experiment. Owing to purification of the xenon-loaded liquid scintillator, we achieved a ...significant reduction of the ^{110m}Ag contaminant identified in previous searches. Combining the results from the first and second phase, we obtain a lower limit for the 0νββ decay half-life of T_{1/2}^{0ν}>1.07×10^{26} yr at 90% C.L., an almost sixfold improvement over previous limits. Using commonly adopted nuclear matrix element calculations, the corresponding upper limits on the effective Majorana neutrino mass are in the range 61-165 meV. For the most optimistic nuclear matrix elements, this limit reaches the bottom of the quasidegenerate neutrino mass region.
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Abstract
We report on a search for electron antineutrinos (
ν
¯
e
) from astrophysical sources in the neutrino energy range 8.3–30.8 MeV with the KamLAND detector. In an exposure of 6.72 kton-year of ...the liquid scintillator, we observe 18 candidate events via the inverse beta decay reaction. Although there is a large background uncertainty from neutral current atmospheric neutrino interactions, we find no significant excess over background model predictions. Assuming several supernova relic neutrino spectra, we give upper flux limits of 60–110 cm
−2
s
−1
(90% confidence level, CL) in the analysis range and present a model-independent flux. We also set limits on the annihilation rates for light dark matter pairs to neutrino pairs. These data improve on the upper probability limit of
8
B solar neutrinos converting into
ν
¯
e
,
P
ν
e
→
ν
¯
e
<
3.5
×
10
−
5
(90% CL) assuming an undistorted
ν
¯
e
shape. This corresponds to a solar
ν
¯
e
flux of 60 cm
−2
s
−1
(90% CL) in the analysis energy range.
ABSTRACT In the late stages of nuclear burning for massive stars (M > 8 M ), the production of neutrino-antineutrino pairs through various processes becomes the dominant stellar cooling mechanism. As ...the star evolves, the energy of these neutrinos increases and in the days preceding the supernova a significant fraction of emitted electron anti-neutrinos exceeds the energy threshold for inverse beta decay on free hydrogen. This is the golden channel for liquid scintillator detectors because the coincidence signature allows for significant reductions in background signals. We find that the kiloton-scale liquid scintillator detector KamLAND can detect these pre-supernova neutrinos from a star with a mass of 25 M at a distance less than 690 pc with 3 significance before the supernova. This limit is dependent on the neutrino mass ordering and background levels. KamLAND takes data continuously and can provide a supernova alert to the community.
Many colliding particles that are periodically sheared by ac drive self-organize to avoid future collisions, which is known as random organization. Recently, we have observed the random organization ...in the vortex system of a strip-shaped amorphous MoxGe1−x film, where the vortices experience periodic local shear from ac drive and the random pinning potential. In this work, we study how random organization changes in the vortex system under the tilted field, where an anisotropic vortex-vortex interaction is introduced. We find that characteristic times of random organization for the vortices driven in the tilted direction are significantly smaller than those in the untilted field.
We report on the inversion of spin-dependent photocurrent via interface localized states formed at the interface of an Fe/n-AlGaAs/GaAs quantum well heterostructure by means of an optical spin ...orientation technique. A careful adjustment of the excitation photon energy, which is determined by a separate analysis of electroluminescence spectra under a spin injection condition, enables us to explore the spin-dependent characteristics of photoelectron transmission from the quantum well into Fe. The bias dependence of the spin-dependent photocurrent shows clear spikelike features at the voltage which is compatible with the formation of the interface localized resonant states in the Schottky depletion layer.
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Some values of the coincidence search in Section 3 were not correct in the published article. The time differences of the closest event to GW150915, GW151226, and LVT151012 are 1.9 h, 5.7 h, and 1017 ...s, respectively. The energies of the closest event are 2.07 MeV, 2.67 MeV, and 1.41 MeV, respectively. Figures 1, 2, and 3 were not correct in the published article. The corrected figures are provided here.