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Title: Search for Neutrinoless Double- β Decay in Ge 76 with the Majorana Demonstrator

Journal Article · · Physical Review Letters
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The MAJORANA Collaboration is operating an array of high purity Ge detectors to search for neutrinoless double-β decay in 76Ge. The MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR comprises 44.1 kg of Ge detectors (29.7 kg enriched in 76Ge) split between two modules contained in a low background shield at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South Dakota. In this paper, we present results from data taken during construction, commissioning, and the start of full operations. We achieve unprecedented energy resolution of 2.5 keV FWHM at Qββ and a very low background with no observed candidate events in 9.95 kg yr of enriched Ge exposure, resulting in a lower limit on the half-life of 1.9 × 1025 yr (90% C.L.). This result constrains the effective Majorana neutrino mass to below 240-520 meV, depending on the matrix elements used. In our experimental configuration with the lowest background, the background is 4.0$$+3.1\atop{-2.5}$$ counts/(FWHM t yr).

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF); Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC); University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Nuclear Physics (NP); USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program; National Science Foundation (NSF); Russian Foundation for Basic Research; Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF)
Contributing Organization:
Majorana Collaboration
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-06NA25396; AC02-05CH11231; FG02-97ER41041; FG02-97ER41033; FG02-97ER41042; SC0012612; FG02-10ER41715; SC0010254; FG02-97ER41020; AC05-00OR22725; MRI-0923142; PHY-0855314; PHY-0919270; PHY-1003399; PHY-1003940; PHY-1102292; PHY-1202950; PHY-1206314; PHY-1619611; PHY-7194299; 15-02-02919
OSTI ID:
1438362
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1429567; OSTI ID: 1436672; OSTI ID: 1454385; OSTI ID: 1658611; OSTI ID: 1658923
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-17-29977; PRLTAO; TRN: US1900422
Journal Information:
Physical Review Letters, Vol. 120, Issue 13; ISSN 0031-9007
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 142 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Neutrino-less double beta decay experiments journal November 2018
Required sensitivity in the search of neutrinoless double beta decay in 124Sn journal September 2019
Barium Chemosensors with Dry-Phase Fluorescence for Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay journal October 2019
First search for 2 ε and εβ + decay of 162 Er and new limit on 2 β decay of 170 Er to the first excited level of 170 Yb journal July 2018
Double beta decay experiments: present and future journal November 2019
Neutrinoless β β nuclear matrix elements using isovector spin-dipole J π = 2 data journal August 2018
C P symmetries as guiding posts: Revamping tribimaximal mixing. II. journal September 2019
Exposure-background duality in the searches of neutrinoless double beta decay journal January 2020
Dirac neutrino mass generation from a Majorana messenger journal February 2020
Low scale type I seesaw model for lepton masses and mixings journal February 2020
Virtual depth by active background suppression: revisiting the cosmic muon induced background of Gerda Phase II journal July 2018
The CUPID-Mo experiment for neutrinoless double-beta decay: performance and prospects journal January 2020
Nuclear transition matrix elements for neutrinoless double-β decay of 76Ge isotope within PHFB approach journal November 2019
Possibilities of Future Double Beta Decay Experiments to Investigate Inverted and Normal Ordering Region of Neutrino Mass journal January 2019
Neutrino Mass Ordering from Oscillations and Beyond: 2018 Status and Future Prospects journal October 2018
Result on the Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay Search of 82Se with the CUPID-0 Experiment journal December 2018
The CUPID-Mo experiment for neutrinoless double-beta decay: performance and prospects text January 2020
CP Symmetries as Guiding Posts: Revamping Tri-Bi-Maximal Mixing-I text January 2018
Possibilities of future double beta decay experiments to investigate inverted and normal ordering region of neutrino mass text January 2019
Barium Chemosensors with Dry-Phase Fluorescence for Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay preprint January 2019
Search for Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay with the Complete EXO-200 Dataset text January 2019
The Exposure-Background Duality in the Searches of Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay text January 2019
The CUPID-Mo experiment for neutrinoless double-beta decay: performance and prospects text January 2019

Figures / Tables (3)