Initial Results from the Majorana Demonstrator
The MAJORANA Collaboration has assembled an array of high purity Ge detectors to search for neutrinoless double-beta decay in 76Ge with the goal of establishing the required background and scalability of a Ge-based next-generation ton-scale experiment. The MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR consists of 44 kg of high-purity Ge (HPGe) detectors (30 kg enriched in 76Ge) with a low-noise p-type point contact (PPC) geometry. The detectors are split between two modules which are contained in a single lead and high-purity copper shield at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South Dakota. Following a commissioning run that started in June 2015, the full detector array has been acquiring data since August 2016. We will discuss the status of the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR and initial results from the first physics run; including current background estimates, exotic low-energy physics searches, projections on the physics reach of the DEMONSTRATOR, and implications for a ton-scale Ge-based neutrinoless double-beta decay search.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF); Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Nuclear Physics (NP); National Science Foundation (NSF)
- Contributing Organization:
- Majorana Collaboration
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-05CH11231; AC52-06NA25396; FG02-97ER41041; FG02-97ER41033; FG02-97ER41042; SC0012612; FG02-10ER41715; SC0010254; FG02-97ER41020; PHY-0919270; PHY-1003940; 0855314; PHY-1202950; MRI 0923142; 1003399; 89233218CNA000001
- OSTI ID:
- 1460298
- Alternate ID(s):
- OSTI ID: 1329819; OSTI ID: 1460329
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-16-27658; ark:/13030/qt92s050qc; TRN: US1901865
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Physics. Conference Series, Vol. 888, Issue 1; ISSN 1742-6588
- Publisher:
- IOP PublishingCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Web of Science
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