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Title: Search for Pauli exclusion principle violating atomic transitions and electron decay with a p-type point contact germanium detector

Abstract

A search for Pauli-exclusion-principle-violating Kα electron transitions was performed using 89.5 kg-d of data collected with a p-type point contact high-purity germanium detector operated at the Kimballton Underground Research Facility. A lower limit on the transition lifetime of 5.8×1030 s at 90% C.L. was set by looking for a peak at 10.6 keV resulting from the X-ray and Auger electrons present following the transition. A similar analysis was done to look for the decay of atomic K-shell electrons into neutrinos, resulting in a lower limit of 6.8×1030 s at 90% C.L. It is estimated that the Majorana Demonstrator, a 44 kg array of p-type point contact detectors that will search for the neutrinoless double-beta decay of 76Ge, could improve upon these exclusion limits by an order of magnitude after three years of operation.

Authors:
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  1. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  2. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
  3. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Univ. of South Carolina, Columbia, SC (United States)
  4. National Research Centre (NRC), Moscow (Russian Federation). Kurchatov Inst. (NRCKI)
  5. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  6. Joint Inst. for Nuclear Research (JINR), 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. South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, SD (United States)
  10. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  11. Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)
  12. Osaka Univ. (Japan)
  13. Triangle Univ. Nuclear Lab., Durham, NC (United States); Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC (United States)
  14. North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC (United States); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Triangle Univ. Nuclear Lab., Durham, NC (United States)
  15. Univ. of South Carolina, Columbia, SC (United States)
  16. Univ. of South Dakota, Vermillion, SD (United States)
  17. Black Hills State Univ., Spearfish, SD (United States)
  18. Tennessee Tech Univ., Cookeville, TN (United States)
  19. Queen's Univ., Kingston, ON (Canada)
  20. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)
  21. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
  22. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Triangle Univ. Nuclear Lab., Durham, NC (United States); Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Nuclear Physics (NP); National Science Foundation (NSF); Russian Foundation for Basic Research; USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program
OSTI Identifier:
1345144
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1339027; OSTI ID: 1377563; OSTI ID: 1489586
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-15-28760; PNNL-SA-123051
Journal ID: ISSN 1434-6044; TRN: US1701260
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; 15-02-02919; AC05-76RL01830; AC05-00OR22725
Resource Type:
Journal Article: Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
European Physical Journal. C, Particles and Fields
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 76; Journal Issue: 11; Journal ID: ISSN 1434-6044
Publisher:
Springer
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS; Atomic and Nuclear Physics; 46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY; experimental limit; bose statistics; Fermi

Citation Formats

Abgrall, N., Arnquist, I. J., Avignone, F. T., Barabash, A. S., Bertrand, F. E., Bradley, A. W., Brudanin, V., Busch, M., Buuck, M., Caldwell, A. S., Chan, Y. -D., Christofferson, C. D., Chu, Pinghan -H., Cuesta, C., Detwiler, J. A., Dunagan, C., Efremenko, Yu., Ejiri, H., Elliott, Steven Ray, Finnerty, P. S., Galindo-Uribarri, A., Gilliss, T., Giovanetti, Graham K., Goett, John Jerome, Green, M. P., Gruszko, J., Guinn, I. S., Guiseppe, V. E., Henning, R., Hoppe, E. W., Howard, S., Howe, M. A., Jasinski, B. R., Keeter, K. J., Kidd, M. F., Konovalov, S. I., Kouzes, R. T., LaFerriere, B. D., Leon, J., MacMullin, J., Martin, R. D., Massarczyk, R., Meijer, S. J., Mertens, S., Orrell, J. L., O’Shaughnessy, C., Poon, A. W. P., Radford, D. C., Rager, J., Rielage, Keith Robert, Robertson, R. G. H., Romero-Romero, E., Shanks, B., Shirchenko, M., Suriano, A. M., Tedeschi, D., Trimble, J. E., Varner, R. L., Vasilyev, S., Vetter, K., Vorren, K., White, B. R., Wilkerson, J. F., Wiseman, C., Xu, W., Yakushev, E., Yu, C. -H., Yumatov, V., and Zhitnikov, I. Search for Pauli exclusion principle violating atomic transitions and electron decay with a p-type point contact germanium detector. United States: N. p., 2016. Web. doi:10.1140/epjc/s10052-016-4467-0.
Abgrall, N., Arnquist, I. J., Avignone, F. T., Barabash, A. S., Bertrand, F. E., Bradley, A. W., Brudanin, V., Busch, M., Buuck, M., Caldwell, A. S., Chan, Y. -D., Christofferson, C. D., Chu, Pinghan -H., Cuesta, C., Detwiler, J. A., Dunagan, C., Efremenko, Yu., Ejiri, H., Elliott, Steven Ray, Finnerty, P. S., Galindo-Uribarri, A., Gilliss, T., Giovanetti, Graham K., Goett, John Jerome, Green, M. P., Gruszko, J., Guinn, I. S., Guiseppe, V. E., Henning, R., Hoppe, E. W., Howard, S., Howe, M. A., Jasinski, B. R., Keeter, K. J., Kidd, M. F., Konovalov, S. I., Kouzes, R. T., LaFerriere, B. D., Leon, J., MacMullin, J., Martin, R. D., Massarczyk, R., Meijer, S. J., Mertens, S., Orrell, J. L., O’Shaughnessy, C., Poon, A. W. P., Radford, D. C., Rager, J., Rielage, Keith Robert, Robertson, R. G. H., Romero-Romero, E., Shanks, B., Shirchenko, M., Suriano, A. M., Tedeschi, D., Trimble, J. E., Varner, R. L., Vasilyev, S., Vetter, K., Vorren, K., White, B. R., Wilkerson, J. F., Wiseman, C., Xu, W., Yakushev, E., Yu, C. -H., Yumatov, V., & Zhitnikov, I. Search for Pauli exclusion principle violating atomic transitions and electron decay with a p-type point contact germanium detector. United States. https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-016-4467-0
Abgrall, N., Arnquist, I. J., Avignone, F. T., Barabash, A. S., Bertrand, F. E., Bradley, A. W., Brudanin, V., Busch, M., Buuck, M., Caldwell, A. S., Chan, Y. -D., Christofferson, C. D., Chu, Pinghan -H., Cuesta, C., Detwiler, J. A., Dunagan, C., Efremenko, Yu., Ejiri, H., Elliott, Steven Ray, Finnerty, P. S., Galindo-Uribarri, A., Gilliss, T., Giovanetti, Graham K., Goett, John Jerome, Green, M. P., Gruszko, J., Guinn, I. S., Guiseppe, V. E., Henning, R., Hoppe, E. W., Howard, S., Howe, M. A., Jasinski, B. R., Keeter, K. J., Kidd, M. F., Konovalov, S. I., Kouzes, R. T., LaFerriere, B. D., Leon, J., MacMullin, J., Martin, R. D., Massarczyk, R., Meijer, S. J., Mertens, S., Orrell, J. L., O’Shaughnessy, C., Poon, A. W. P., Radford, D. C., Rager, J., Rielage, Keith Robert, Robertson, R. G. H., Romero-Romero, E., Shanks, B., Shirchenko, M., Suriano, A. M., Tedeschi, D., Trimble, J. E., Varner, R. L., Vasilyev, S., Vetter, K., Vorren, K., White, B. R., Wilkerson, J. F., Wiseman, C., Xu, W., Yakushev, E., Yu, C. -H., Yumatov, V., and Zhitnikov, I. 2016. "Search for Pauli exclusion principle violating atomic transitions and electron decay with a p-type point contact germanium detector". United States. https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-016-4467-0. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1345144.
@article{osti_1345144,
title = {Search for Pauli exclusion principle violating atomic transitions and electron decay with a p-type point contact germanium detector},
author = {Abgrall, N. and Arnquist, I. J. and Avignone, F. T. and Barabash, A. S. and Bertrand, F. E. and Bradley, A. W. and Brudanin, V. and Busch, M. and Buuck, M. and Caldwell, A. S. and Chan, Y. -D. and Christofferson, C. D. and Chu, Pinghan -H. and Cuesta, C. and Detwiler, J. A. and Dunagan, C. and Efremenko, Yu. and Ejiri, H. and Elliott, Steven Ray and Finnerty, P. S. and Galindo-Uribarri, A. and Gilliss, T. and Giovanetti, Graham K. and Goett, John Jerome and Green, M. P. and Gruszko, J. and Guinn, I. S. and Guiseppe, V. E. and Henning, R. and Hoppe, E. W. and Howard, S. and Howe, M. A. and Jasinski, B. R. and Keeter, K. J. and Kidd, M. F. and Konovalov, S. I. and Kouzes, R. T. and LaFerriere, B. D. and Leon, J. and MacMullin, J. and Martin, R. D. and Massarczyk, R. and Meijer, S. J. and Mertens, S. and Orrell, J. L. and O’Shaughnessy, C. and Poon, A. W. P. and Radford, D. C. and Rager, J. and Rielage, Keith Robert and Robertson, R. G. H. and Romero-Romero, E. and Shanks, B. and Shirchenko, M. and Suriano, A. M. and Tedeschi, D. and Trimble, J. E. and Varner, R. L. and Vasilyev, S. and Vetter, K. and Vorren, K. and White, B. R. and Wilkerson, J. F. and Wiseman, C. and Xu, W. and Yakushev, E. and Yu, C. -H. and Yumatov, V. and Zhitnikov, I.},
abstractNote = {A search for Pauli-exclusion-principle-violating Kα electron transitions was performed using 89.5 kg-d of data collected with a p-type point contact high-purity germanium detector operated at the Kimballton Underground Research Facility. A lower limit on the transition lifetime of 5.8×1030 s at 90% C.L. was set by looking for a peak at 10.6 keV resulting from the X-ray and Auger electrons present following the transition. A similar analysis was done to look for the decay of atomic K-shell electrons into neutrinos, resulting in a lower limit of 6.8×1030 s at 90% C.L. It is estimated that the Majorana Demonstrator, a 44 kg array of p-type point contact detectors that will search for the neutrinoless double-beta decay of 76Ge, could improve upon these exclusion limits by an order of magnitude after three years of operation.},
doi = {10.1140/epjc/s10052-016-4467-0},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1345144}, journal = {European Physical Journal. C, Particles and Fields},
issn = {1434-6044},
number = 11,
volume = 76,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Nov 11 00:00:00 EST 2016},
month = {Fri Nov 11 00:00:00 EST 2016}
}

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Cited by: 12 works
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Figures / Tables:

Fig. 1 Fig. 1 : Rise-time distribution of events in the region of interest. The rise-time cut, defined to retain more than 99% of all fast bulk events, is shown by the $red$ $line$

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Works referencing / citing this record:

Non-commutative quantum gravity phenomenology in underground experiments
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Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay Experiments With TeO2 Low-Temperature Detectors
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Underground test of quantum mechanics - the VIP2 experiment
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Figures/Tables have been extracted from DOE-funded journal article accepted manuscripts.