Study of 48Ca double beta decay with CANDLES

CANDLES is the project to search for double beta decay of 48Ca by using CaF2 scintillators. If neutrinos have Majorana mass they violate lepton number conservation and neutrino-less double beta decay (OvDBD) can then take place. Therefore the study of the 0 vDBD is one of the most fundamental researches to be carried out in a coming decade. We have been studying the DBD of 48Ca using CaF2 scintillators. The Q value of 48Ca is the highest (4.27 MeV) among potential DBD nuclei. It is far above energies of γ-rays from natural radio-activities (maximum 2.615 MeV from 208TI decay), therefore we can naturally expect small backgrounds in the energy region we are interested in. Required performances for the detector are radio-purity, good background rejection efficiency and good energy resolution. We have constructed CANDLES III detector in our laboratory at sea level, which consists of 60 CaF2 crystals with the total mass of 191 kg. We are studying the basic performances of the system, including the light collection, position reconstruction and background rejection. On the bases of experiences in CANDLES III, the CANDLES project will be scaled up to several tons of calcium to have the sensitivity to the mass region of interest.