On the hunt for lepton number violation: the latest from the NEXT 0vBB experiment 

Neutrinos are one of the least understood particles in the Standard Model (SM) and may be one of the keys needed to answer important questions such as the origin of the matter-antimatter asymmetry and whether lepton number is violated. They have already contributed to beyond the SM effects such as neutrino oscillations and further questions such as what is the neutrino mass, why are they so light, do neutrinos violate the CP symmetry, and whether they are their own antiparticle (Majorana) remain. The observation of a rare decay process known as neutrinoless double beta decay (0vBB) is the most feasible way to determine the nature of the neutrino and is currently an active field of research. The NEXT experiment aims to search for 0vBB using the xenon-136 isotope with a high-pressure gaseous time projection chamber (TPC). NEXT-100 is the latest experiment in this program and is currently taking physics data in the Canfranc Underground Laboratory in Spain. In this talk, I will give an overview of neutrinoless double beta decay, an update on the current status of the NEXT-100 experiment, and my research program on NEXT which includes the successful installation of the NEXT-100 electroluminescence region, new topological analyses, probing 0vBB decay mechanisms, and gaseous xenon TPC simulations.