NEXT: A neutrinoless double beta decay experiment

The goal of the next generation of ßß^0¿ experiments is to fully explore the degenerate hierarchy. This neutrino mass range will only be accessible for experiments that can simultaneously achieve a large fiducial mass and negligible backgrounds. A high-pressure, gaseous Xenon TPC has good prospects to combine many desirable features to reach this goal. If operated in an electroluminescence mode the energy resolution in gaseous xenon is expected to be in the order of 1%. Furthermore the existence of a kinematical signature gives an excellent additional handle against backgrounds. The NEXT collaboration is planing to build a TPC with a mass of about 100 kg enriched xenon (¹³⁶Xe). Such an detector will explore the degenerated hierarchy and provide a deep understanding of the experimental techniques to suppress backgrounds required for larger detectors. The current status of our R&D towards a Neutrino Experiment with a Xenon TPC (NEXT) is presented.