skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: The large enriched germanium experiment for neutrinoless double beta decay (LEGEND)

Journal Article · · AIP Conference Proceedings
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5007652· OSTI ID:1489568
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; more »; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; « less

We report the observation of neutrinoless double-beta decay (0νββ) would show that lepton number is violated, reveal that neu-trinos are Majorana particles, and provide information on neutrino mass. A discovery-capable experiment covering the inverted ordering region, with effective Majorana neutrino masses of 15 - 50 meV, will require a tonne-scale experiment with excellent energy resolution and extremely low backgrounds, at the level of ~0.1 count /(FWHM·t·yr) in the region of the signal. The current generation 76Ge experiments GERDA and the Majorana Demonstrator, utilizing high purity Germanium detectors with an intrinsic energy resolution of 0.12%, have achieved the lowest backgrounds by over an order of magnitude in the 0νββ signal region of all 0νββ experiments. Building on this success, the LEGEND collaboration has been formed to pursue a tonne-scale 76Ge experiment. Lastly, the collaboration aims to develop a phased 0νββ experimental program with discovery potential at a half-life approaching or at 1028 years, using existing resources as appropriate to expedite physics results.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Nuclear Physics (NP)
Contributing Organization:
LEGEND Collaboration
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725; AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1489568
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 2202430
Journal Information:
AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1892, Issue 1; ISSN 0094-243X
Publisher:
American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 118 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (17)

Neutrino mass and New physics journal November 2006
Neutrino Mass and New Physics text January 2006
Neutrinoless double beta decay journal November 2015
Review of Particle Physics journal October 2016
Review of Particle Physics text January 2018
Neutrino Mass and New Physics journal November 2006
A novel HPGe detector for gamma-ray tracking and imaging
  • Cooper, R. J.; Radford, D. C.; Hausladen, P. A.
  • Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 665 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2011.10.008
journal February 2011
Double beta decay, Majorana neutrinos, and neutrino mass journal April 2008
Review of Particle Physics text January 2008
Results from the first use of low radioactivity argon in a dark matter search journal April 2016
Theory of neutrinos: a white paper journal October 2007
Expected atmospheric concentration of 42Ar
  • Peurrung, A. J.; Bowyer, T. W.; Craig, R. A.
  • Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 396, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0168-9002(97)00819-X
journal September 1997
Limits on uranium and thorium bulk content in Gerda Phase I detectors text January 2017
Review of Particle Physics text January 2012
Low capacitance large volume shaped-field germanium detector journal January 1989
Limits on uranium and thorium bulk content in Gerda Phase I detectors journal May 2017
Double beta decay, Majorana neutrinos, and neutrino mass text January 2008

Cited By (17)

Required sensitivity in the search of neutrinoless double beta decay in 124Sn journal September 2019
Neutrino Mass Ordering from Oscillations and Beyond: 2018 Status and Future Prospects journal October 2018
Probing Majorana neutrinos with double-β decay journal September 2019
Long-lived particles at the energy frontier: the MATHUSLA physics case journal October 2019
Search for Neutrinoless Double- β Decay in Ge 76 with the Majorana Demonstrator journal March 2018
Limits on Light Weakly Interacting Massive Particles from the First 102.8 kg × day Data of the CDEX-10 Experiment journal June 2018
Improved Limit on Neutrinoless Double- β Decay of Ge 76 from GERDA Phase II journal March 2018
Polyethylene naphthalate film as a wavelength shifter in liquid argon detectors journal March 2019
Possibilities of future double beta decay experiments to investigate inverted and normal ordering region of neutrino mass text January 2019
Virtual depth by active background suppression: revisiting the cosmic muon induced background of Gerda Phase II journal July 2018
Radiopurity measurements of aluminum, copper and selenium materials for underground experiments and mass spectrometry development journal October 2019
Probing Majorana neutrinos with double-β decay text January 2019
Polyethylene naphthalate film as a wavelength shifter in liquid argon detectors text January 2018
Long-Lived Particles at the Energy Frontier: The MATHUSLA Physics Case text January 2018
Possibilities of Future Double Beta Decay Experiments to Investigate Inverted and Normal Ordering Region of Neutrino Mass journal January 2019
The Exposure-Background Duality in the Searches of Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay text January 2019
Exposure-background duality in the searches of neutrinoless double beta decay journal January 2020

Figures / Tables (1)


Similar Records

Investigation of ASIC-based signal readout electronics for LEGEND-1000
Journal Article · Wed Sep 16 00:00:00 EDT 2020 · Journal of Instrumentation · OSTI ID:1489568

The Majorana Demonstrator: A search for neutrinoless double-beta decay of germanium-76
Journal Article · Mon Dec 30 00:00:00 EST 2013 · AIP Conference Proceedings · OSTI ID:1489568

Research in Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay (Final Report)
Technical Report · Mon Jun 14 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · OSTI ID:1489568