The Majorana Demonstrator: Progress towards showing the feasibility of a tonne–scale ⁷⁶Ge neutrinoless double–beta decay experiment

Conference · Mon Mar 24 00:00:00 EDT 2014 · Journal of Physics. Conference Series

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/485/1/012042· OSTI ID:1481679

Finnerty, P.; Aguayo, E.; Amman, M.; Avignone, F. T.; Barabash, A. S.; Barton, P. J.; Beene, J. R.; Bertrand, F. E.; Boswell, M.; Brudanin, V.; Busch, M.; Chan, Y-D; Christofferson, C. D.; Collar, J. I.; Combs, D. C.; Cooper, R. J.; Detwiler, J. A.; Doe, P. J.; Efremenko, Yu; Egorov, V. ; Ejiri, H.; Elliott, S. R.; Esterline, J.; Fast, J. E.; Fields, N.; Fraenkle, F. M.; Galindo-Uribarri, A.; Gehman, V. M.; Giovanetti, G. K.; Green, M. P.; Guiseppe, V. E.; Gusey, K.; Hallin, A. L.; Hazama, R.; Henning, R.; Hoppe, E. W.; Horton, M.; Howard, S.; Howe, M. A.; Johnson, R. A.; Keeter, K. J.; Kidd, M. F.; Knecht, A.; Kochetov, O.; Konovalov, S. I.; Kouzes, R. T.; LaFerriere, B. D.; Leon, J.; Leviner, L. E.; Loach, J. C.; Luke, P. N.; MacMullin, S.; Marino, M. G.; Martin, R. D.; Merriman, J. H.; Miller, M. L.; Mizouni, L.; Nomachi, M.; Orrell, J. L.; Overman, N. R.; Perumpilly, G.; Phillips, D. G.; Poon, A. W. P.; Radford, D. C.; Rielage, K.; Robertson, R. G. H.; Ronquest, M. C.; Schubert, A. G.; Shima, T.; Shirchenko, M.; Snavely, K. J.; Steele, D.; Strain, J.; Timkin, V.; Tornow, W.; Varner, R. L.; Vetter, K.; Vorren, K.; Wilkerson, J. F.; Yakushev, E.; Yaver, H.; Young, A. R.; Yu, C-H; Yumatov, V.

The Majorana Demonstrator will search for the neutrinoless double–beta decay (0vββ) of the ⁷⁶Ge isotope with a mixed array of enriched and natural germanium detectors. The observation of this rare decay would indicate the neutrino is its own anti–particle, demonstrate that lepton number is not conserved, and provide information on the absolute mass–scale of the neutrino. The Demonstrator is being assembled at the 4850 foot level of the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South Dakota. The array will be contained in a low–background environment and surrounded by passive and active shielding. The goals for the Demonstrator are: demonstrating a background rate less than 3 t^-1 y^-1 in the 4 keV region of interest (ROI) surrounding the 2039 keV ⁷⁶Ge endpoint energy; establishing the technology required to build a tonne–scale germanium based double–beta decay experiment; testing the recent claim of observation of 0vββ [1]; and performing a direct search for light WIMPs (3-10 GeV/c²).

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Nuclear Physics (NP)
• Contributing Organization: The Majorana Collaboration
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1481679
• Journal Information: Journal of Physics. Conference Series, Vol. 485; Conference: PASCOS 2012 - 18TH INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON PARTICLES STRINGS AND COSMOLOGY , Merida, Mexico, 6/3/2012 8:00:00 AM-6/8/2012 8:00:00 AM; ISSN 1742-6588
• Publisher: IOP Publishing
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English