SENSITIVITY OF A LARGE VOLUME LXE TPC TO NEUTRINOLESS DOUBLE BETA-DECAY

We examine the sensitivity of an unenriched 200 liter liquid xenon detector to the double bet, decay of Xe-136. Considerations of the backgrounds arising from the detector construction materials and subterranean operation suggest a sensitivity of order 10(25) square-root t yr for the neutrinoless process, comparable with currently projected sensitivities of two enriched-germanium experiments now in progress. For the two-neutrino process, the background is however too severe to reach a similar limit without significant isotopic enrichment. In either case, the need for a track imaging detector with good spatial resolution, in addition to good energy resolution, is clearly evident.