Les détecteurs NEMO-3 et SuperNEMO ont été conçus pour la recherche de décroissance double bêta sans émission de neutrinos. Ces détecteurs fournissent une approche unique dans la recherche des événements double bêta en combinant des mesures à la fois de trajectoires, de temps de vol et d'énergie. De plus, grâce à la séparation de la source double bêta du reste du système de détection, les détecteurs NEMO ont la possibilité d'étudier plusieurs isotopes double bêta avec une forte réjection du bruit de fond.Cette thèse présente plusieurs études réalisées dans le cadre de l'optimisation et la préparation du détecteur SuperNEMO, successeur de NEMO-3. La première concerne l'optimisation des performances du détecteur en fonction de la configuration mécanique de ses feuilles sources. La conclusion de cette étude est que les deux configurations considérées sont équivalentes. La seconde étude s'intéresse à l'un des principaux bruits de fond que constitue le radon dans la recherche des désintégrations double bêta. Cette étude a été concrétisée par le développement et l'implémentation d'un algorithme permettant l'identification et la mesure des événements provenant de ce bruit de fond. Le deuxième volet de cette thèse rapporte l'analyse des données de NEMO-3 pour rechercher les décroissances double bêta avec et sans émission de neutrino du Cd-116 vers les états excités du Sn-116. Ces décroissances n'ont jamais été observées à ce jour, et les limites obtenus sur les états excités (2+) et (0+) sont les premières utilisant le détecteur NEMO-3. / The NEMO-3 and SuperNEMO detectors have been designed to search for neutrinoless double beta decays. These detectors provide a unique approach combining a calorimetric and a tracking measurement of double beta events emitted by a separated isotopic source. This approach allows to search for neutrinoless double beta decays among several isotopes with good background rejection. This thesis presents many studies performed for the optimisation and the preparation of the SuperNEMO detector, successor of NEMO-3. The first study concerns the optimisation of the detector performances with respect to the design of the source foil. The conclusion of this study is that the two configurations considered are equivalent. The second study focuses on the radon which constitutes one of the main background to the search for double beta decays. In this study an algorithm has been developed and implemented to search for the alpha particle allowing the identification and the measurement of the radon events. The thesis is completed by an analysis of the NEMO-3 data to search for the double beta decay of Cd-116 via the excited state of Sn-116. These decays have never been observed up to date and the limits set on the excited states (2+) and (0+) are the first using the NEMO-3 detector.

As a part of our program to test the unitarity of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix, the decay of the superallowed 0⁺ --> 0⁺ beta emitters ³⁸Ca and ⁴⁶V has been studied in this dissertation. For ³⁸Ca, the half-life, 443.88(36) ms, and superallowed branching ratio, 0.7738(41), have been measured. In our half-life experiment, pure sources of ³⁸Ca were produced and the decay positrons detected in a high-efficiency 4[pi] proportional gas counter. Since the beta⁺ decay of ³⁸Ca feeds ³⁸K^m, which is itself a superallowed beta⁺ emitter, the data were analyzed as a linked parent-daughter decay. Our result for the half-life of ³⁸Ca, with a precision of 0.08%, is a factor of five improvement on the best previous result. The branching-ratio of ³⁸Ca depended on beta-delayed gamma-ray intensities being measured with a high-purity germanium detector calibrated for absolute efficiency to 0.2% precision. This branching-ratio result represents our first step in bringing the ft value for the superallowed ³⁸Ca transition into the desired range of 0.1%. With our half-life and superallowed branching ratio results for ³⁸Ca, we obtain the Ft to be 3072(17) s, in good agreement with the conserved vector current expectation. The half-life of ⁴⁶V has been measured to be 422.66(6) ms, a factor of two more precise than the best previous measurement. Our present result determines the corresponding Ft value to be 3074.5(26) s, which is consistent with the average $\overline{\mathcal{F}t}$ value of 3072.08(79) s established from the 13 best-known superallowed transitions. This demonstrates that previously accepted half-lives of ⁴⁶V were correct in their contribution to a precision test of the conserved vector current hypothesis.

Precision measurements of superallowed Fermi β-decay allow for stringent tests of the magnitude of isospin-symmetry-breaking effects in nuclei, the validity of the conserved vector current hypothesis, and the unitarity of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) quark-mixing matrix. A high-precision measurement of the branching ratio for the superallowed β+ decay of 74Rb has been performed at the Isotope Separator and ACcelerator (ISAC) facility at TRIUMF. The 8π spectrometer, an array of 20 HPGe detectors, was used to detect γ-rays emitted following the Gamow-Teller and non-analogue Fermi β-decays of 74Rb. PACES, an array of 5 Si(Li) detectors, was used to detect emitted conversion electrons, while half of SCEPTAR, a close-packed array of 10 plastic scintillators, was used to detect emitted β particles. In this experiment, 23 excited states were identified in 74Kr which were populated following the β-decay of 74Rb. A total of 58 γ-rays were identified following the 8.241(4)x108 detected β-particles. An observed non-superallowed branching ratio of 0.396(7)% was determined from the intensity of the identified γ-rays, while the unobserved non-superallowed intensity was calculated to be 0.05(5)%, leading to a superallowed branching ratio of 99.55(5)%. The superallowed branching ratio is now the most precise experimental quantity in the determination of the superallowed ft-value of 74Rb. Combining the half-life and Q-value with the superallowed branching ratio measured in this work leads to a superallowed ft-value of 3082.6(66) s. Finally, comparisons between the superallowed ft-value, the world average Ft-value, and the non-analogue Fermi branching ratio are made to provide future guidance in the refinement of the theoretical models required to describe the crucial isospin-symmetry-breaking term in superallowed β-decay.

As part of an ongoing program to study fundamental symmetries in nuclear physics, a thorough investigation into shell-model isospin-symmetry-breaking (ISB) calculation theory has been conducted using direct reactions to observe detailed nuclear-structure information. The work presented in this Thesis focuses on the 62Ga superallowed beta-decay system, and consists of two primary experiments; 1) A 64Zn(d,t)63Zn single-neutron transfer reaction, aimed at observing spectroscopic strengths to help guide calculation model-space truncations for the beta-decay wave function radial-overlap component of ISB, and 2) A two-neutron 64Zn(p,t)62Zn transfer to search for excited 0+ states in the daughter nucleus of 62Ga. The experiments were performed at the Maier-Leibnitz-Laboratory, on the joint campuses of the Ludwig-Maximilians Universitat and the Technische Universitat Munchen, in Garching, Germany. In total, 162 states in 63Zn were populated from the 64Zn(d,t) reaction, up to an excitation energy of 4.8 MeV, including the observation of 125 new levels, and unique spin/parity assignments for 92 states. As a result, this work provides the most complete picture for low-spin states in 63Zn to date. A comparison of the extracted S values to the predicted shell-model spectroscopic factors shows an overall over-prediction of strength for the 2p3/2 orbital, and a large disagreement for the 1f7/2 orbital above ~3.5 MeV. No significant 1g9/2 strength was observed, leading to the conclusion that the importance of the 1g9/2 orbital for ISB is small. Additionally, 67 states were observed in 62Zn using the two-neutron pickup mechanism, including the observation of five 0+ states. More than 99% of the total 0+ (p,t) cross-section is observed in the ground-state reaction channel, implying a nearly maximal overlap of the wave functions with the two-nucleon transfer operator. The dominance of the ground-state-to-ground-state (p,t) cross section is strikingly similar to the dominance of the superallowed Fermi beta-decay between isobaric-analogue 0+ states. This suggests that the population of excited 0+ states in the (p,t) reaction may reflect the population in the Fermi decay process, and can be used to guide future experimental and theoretical work. Further discussion of these results as they relate to the ISB correction calculations, and the implications for future theoretical work are presented in this Thesis. / This work was supported in part by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation, the DFG Cluster of Excellence `Origin and Structure of the Universe', and NSF grant PHY-1068217.

The SNO+ experiment is a kilo-tonne scale liquid scintillator detector located at SNOLAB in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. As the successor to the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, SNO+ will use linear alkylbenzene (LAB) as the scintillator to study neutrinos. During the solar phase, ux measurements will be made of low energy neutrinos originating in the Sun. In another phase, 800 kg of tellurium will loaded into the scintillator to search for neutrinoless double beta decay. Measurements will also be made of neutrinos coming from nearby nuclear reactors and from inside Earth's mantle and crust. To enable these multiple physics goals, a sensitive calibration procedure must be carried out in order to fully understand the detector. The optical and energy responses of the detector will be measured with calibration sources deployed throughout the acrylic vessel. These sources must be connected to the observatory deck above the vessel by gas capillaries, optical bres, and signal wires housed in specially designed submersible umbilical cables. The design and fabrication of these umbilical cables is presented. Development work on a deployed radon calibration source will also be described. / Thesis (Master, Physics, Engineering Physics and Astronomy) -- Queen's University, 2014-05-30 15:56:19.906

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