EXO-200 Measures Ultra-Rare Nuclear Decay

Publication date: Tue, Aug 30, 2011 - 4:25am

EXO-200, an experiment housed deep underground in the WIPP salt mine in New Mexico, has measured the 2-neutrino double-beta decay of Xe-136 for the first time. Such decay, governed by standard weak interactions, is the slowest directly detected nuclear process ever measured. EXO-200 is the first generation experiment of the EXO collaboration, which includes Professors Andrea Pocar and Krishna Kumar. The result has been posted in arXiv:1108.4193