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

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4856546· OSTI ID:22262673

Elliott, S. R.; Boswell, M.; Goett, J.; Rielage, K.; Ronquest, M. C.; Xu, W. ^[1]; Abgrall, N.; Chan, Y-D.; Hegai, A.; Martin, R. D.; Mertens, S.; Poon, A. W. P. ^[2]; Aguayo, E.; Fast, J. E.; Hoppe, E. W.; Kouzes, R. T.; LaFerriere, B. D.; Orrell, J. L.; Overman, N. R.; Soin, A. ^[3] ; others, and

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1. Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM (United States)
2. Nuclear Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA (United States)
3. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA (United States)

The MAJORANA collaboration is searching for neutrinoless double beta decay using {sup 76}Ge, which has been shown to have a number of advantages in terms of sensitivities and backgrounds. The observation of neutrinoless double-beta decay would show that lepton number is violated and that neutrinos are Majorana particles and would simultaneously provide information on neutrino mass. Attaining sensitivities for neutrino masses in the inverted hierarchy region, 15 - 50 meV, will require large, tonne-scale detectors with extremely low backgrounds, at the level of ∼1 count/t-y or lower in the region of the signal. The MAJORANA collaboration, with funding support from DOE Office of Nuclear Physics and NSF Particle Astrophysics, is constructing the DEMONSTRATOR, an array consisting of 40 kg of p-type point-contact high-purity germanium (HPGe) detectors, of which ∼30 kg will be enriched to 87% in {sup 76}Ge. The DEMONSTRATOR is being constructed in a clean room laboratory facility at the 4850' level (4300 m.w.e.) of the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in Lead, SD. It utilizes a compact graded shield approach with the inner portion consisting of ultra-clean Cu that is being electroformed and machined underground. The primary aim of the DEMONSTRATOR is to show the feasibility of a future tonne-scale measurement in terms of backgrounds and scalability.

• OSTI ID: 22262673
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1572, Issue 1; Conference: MEDEX '13: Workshop on calculation of double-beta-decay materx elements, Prague (Czech Republic), 11-14 Jun 2013; Other Information: (c) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-243X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
DOUBLE BETA DECAY
ELECTRIC CONTACTS
GERMANIUM
GERMANIUM 76
HIGH-PURITY GE DETECTORS
LEPTON NUMBER
MEV RANGE
NEUTRINOS
SENSITIVITY