The MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR: A Search for Neutrinoless Double-beta Decay of Germanium-76
The observation of neutrinoless double-beta decay would determine whether the neutrino is a Majorana particle and provide information on the absolute scale of neutrino mass. The MAJORANA Collaboration is constructing the DEMONSTRATOR, an array of germanium detectors, to search for neutrinoless double-beta decay of 76Ge. The DEMONSTRATOR will contain 40 kg of germanium; up to 30 kg will be enriched to 86% in 76Ge. The DEMONSTRATOR will be deployed deep underground in an ultra-low-background shielded environment. Operation of the DEMONSTRATOR aims to determine whether a future tonne-scale germanium experiment can achieve a background goal of one count per tonne-year in a 4-keV region of interest around the 76Ge neutrinoless double-beta decay Q-value of 2039 keV.
- Research Organization:
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-76RL01830
- OSTI ID:
- 1203935
- Report Number(s):
- PNNL-SA-101296; KB0401022
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 91th Particles and Nuclei International Conference (PANIC11), July 24-29, 2011, Cambridge, Massachusetts. AIP Conference Proceedings, 1441:Article No. 480
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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