First NEXT prototypes for double-beta decay search

The NEXT collaboration aims at building a 100 kg high-pressure Xenon gas TPC enriched in 136Xe isotope, to measure its two double-beta decay modes and to explore the degenerate hierarchy of the neutrino mass. The high-pressure Xenon gas offers the possibility to record the event energy with near-intrinsic resolution using electroluminescence, as well as the event track and topology patterns. These are the key features of a robust double-beta decay experiment which are presently being investigated in the first NEXT prototypes, the so-called NEXT0 and NEXT1. In this paper, the prototypes being developed at IFIC and University of Zaragoza are described and preliminary results are outlined.