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arXiv · 2609.10048

Search for neutrinoless quadruple beta decay of $^{136}$Xe in PandaX-4T detector

Abstract

The observation of neutrinoless quadruple beta decay (0$\nu$4$\beta$) in the absence of neutrinoless double beta decay (0$\nu$2$\beta$) has been argued to provide a strong indication that neutrinos are Dirac particles. We report a search for 0$\nu$4$\beta$ decay of $^{136}\text{Xe}$ using a total $^{136}\text{Xe}$ exposure of 148.4 kg$\cdot$yr, collected during the commissioning and the first science runs of the PandaX-4T experiment. No significant excess of events over the background is observed. A lower limit on the 0$\nu$4$\beta$ decay half-life of $^{136}\text{Xe}$ is set at 6.01 x $10^{24}$ yr at the 90% confidence level. This result establishes the most stringent constraint on this process in xenon, demonstrating the unique capability of the PandaX-4T detector in probing lepton number violation and shedding light on the fundamental nature of neutrinos.

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PandaX Collaboration, Zhiyuan Li, Peiyuan Chen, Wei Chen, Xiaohua Chen, Xun Chen, Yunhua Chen, Chen Cheng, Xiangyi Cui, Yuxin Cui, Manna Deng, Roni Dey, Yingjie Fan, Deqing Fang, Xuanye Fu, Zhixing Gao, Yujie Ge, Lisheng Geng, Xunan Guo, Xuyuan Guo, Zichao Guo, Chencheng Han, Ke Han, Changda He, Jinrong He, Ruquan Hou, Houqi Huang, Junting Huang, Yule Huang, Xiangdong Ji, Yonglin Ju, Xiaorun Lan, Chenxiang Li, Mingchuan Li, Peiyuan Li, Shuaijie Li, Tao Li, Yangdong Li, Yuan Li, Qing Lin, Jianglai Liu, Yuanchun Liu, Yunyang Luo, Yugang Ma, Yajun Mao, Yue Meng, Binyu Pang, Ningchun Qi, Xiangxiang Ren, Dong Shan, Xiyuan Shao, Manbin Shen, Xuyan Sun, Yi Tao, Yueqiang Tian, Yuxin Tian, Anqing Wang, Guanbo Wang, Hao Wang, Haoyu Wang, Jiamin Wang, Lei Wang, Meng Wang, Qiuhong Wang, Shaobo Wang, Shibo Wang, Siguang Wang, Wei Wang, Xu Wang, Zhou Wang, Yuehuan Wei, Weihao Wu, Yuan Wu, Mengjiao Xiao, Xiang Xiao, Yuhan Xie, Kaizhi Xiong, Jianqin Xu, Yifan Xu, Binbin Yan, Xiyu Yan, Yong Yang, Shunyu Yao, Peihua Ye, Chunxu Yu, Zhe Yuan, Youhui Yun, Minzhen Zhang, Peng Zhang, Shibo Zhang, Shu Zhang, Siyuan Zhang, Tao Zhang, Wei Zhang, Yang Zhang, Yingxin Zhang, Yuanyuan Zhang, Kangkang Zhao, Li Zhao, Jiaxu Zhou. 2026-09-09. Search for neutrinoless quadruple beta decay of $^{136}$Xe in PandaX-4T detector. https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.10048

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