Status and physics potential of NEXT-100

The NEXT-100 time projection chamber, currently under construction, will search for neutrinoless double beta decay (ββ0ν) using 100–150 kg of high-pressure xenon gas enriched in the 136Xe isotope to ∼ 91%. The detector possesses two important features for ββ0ν searches: very good energy resolution (better than 1% FWHM at the Q value of 136Xe) and event topological information for the distinction between signal and background. Furthermore, the technique can be extrapolated to the ton-scale, thus allowing the full exploration of the inverted hierarchy of neutrino masses