Updates from NuDot: Double-Beta Decay with Direction Reconstruction in Liquid Scintillator

Future neutrinoless double beta-decay experiments using kiloton-scale liquid scintillator detectors will require new background-reduction techniques. Otherwise irreducible backgrounds such as ⁸B solar neutrino scattering can be identified by their event topology using Cherenkov light signals. NuDot is a half-ton prototype aiming to demonstrate this technique, using precision timing to separate Cherenkov and scintillation signals in 1 to 2 MeV beta particles. In the coming months, NuDot will undergo upgrades and move from its current location, at the MIT Bates Research and Engineering Center, to continue its surface operation phase at Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory. The goal of this surface data-taking campaign is to demonstrate Cherenkov light-based directional reconstruction with a collimated beta calibration source. Updates will be presented on NuDot's commissioning and the design and implementation of magnetic shielding for the experiment. Updates will also be presented on a new testing campaign of perovskite-based quantum-dot-loaded liquid scintillators.