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Title: The MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR: A search for neutrinoless double-beta decay of ⁷⁶Ge

Journal Article · · Journal of Physics. Conference Series
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  1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  2. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  3. Univ. of South Carolina, Columbia, SC (United States); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  4. Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics, Moscow (Russian Federation)
  5. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  6. Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna (Russian Federation)
  7. Duke Univ., Durham, NC (United States); Triangle Univ. Nuclear Lab., Durham, NC (United States)
  8. Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)
  9. Univ. of South Dakota, Vermillion, SD (United States)
  10. South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, SD (United States)
  11. Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)
  12. Osaka Univ., Osaka (Japan)
  13. Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC (United States); Triangle Univ. Nuclear Lab., Durham, NC (United States)
  14. Univ. of South Carolina, Columbia, SC (United States)
  15. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
  16. Black Hills State Univ., Spearfish, SD (United States)
  17. Tennessee Tech Univ., Cookeville, TN (United States)
  18. Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics, Moscow (Russia)
  19. Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States); Oak Ridge National Lab, Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  20. Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna (Russia)
  21. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
  22. Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC (United States); Triangle Univ. Nuclear Lab., Durham, NC (United States); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

Neutrinoless double-beta (0νββ) decay is a hypothesized process where in some even-even nuclei it might be possible for two neutrons to simultaneously decay into two protons and two electrons without emitting neutrinos. This is possible only if neutrinos are Majorana particles, i.e. fermions that are their own antiparticles. Neutrinos being Majorana particles would explicitly violate lepton number conservation, and might play a role in the matter-antimatter asymmetry in the universe. The observation of neutrinoless double-beta decay would also provide complementary information related to neutrino masses. The Majorana Collaboration is constructing the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR, with a total of 40-kg Germanium detectors, to search for the 0νββ decay of ⁷⁶Ge and to demonstrate a background rate at or below 3 counts/(ROI•t•y) in the 4 keV region of interest (ROI) around the 2039 keV Q-value for ⁷⁶Ge 0νββ decay. In this paper, we discuss the physics of neutrinoless double beta decay and then focus on the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR, including its design and approach to achieve ultra-low backgrounds and the status of the experiment.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Contributing Organization:
Majorana Collaboration
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-06NA25396
OSTI ID:
1193644
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-15-20211
Journal Information:
Journal of Physics. Conference Series, Vol. 606, Issue C; ISSN 1742-6588
Publisher:
IOP PublishingCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 9 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (14)

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journal November 2014
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  • Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 709 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2012.11.191
journal May 2013
Sudbury neutrino observatory neutral current detector acquisition software overview journal June 2004

Cited By (1)

Introduction to Neutrino Oscillation book September 2017

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Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
neutrinoless double-beta decay
high-purity Germanium detector