Status of the Majorana Demonstrator

Journal Article · Wed Oct 28 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4934894· OSTI ID:22492660

Cuesta, C.; Buuck, M.; Detwiler, J. A.; Gruszko, J.; Guinn, I. S.; Leon, J.; Robertson, R. G. H. ^[1]; Abgrall, N.; Bradley, A. W.; Chan, Y. -D.; Mertens, S.; Poon, A. W. P. ^[2]; Arnquist, I. J.; Hoppe, E. W.; Kouzes, R. T.; LaFerriere, B. D.; Orrell, J. L. ^[3]; Avignone, F. T. ^[4]; Baldenegro-Barrera, C. X.; Bertrand, F. E. ^[5] ; others, and

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1. Center for Experimental Nuclear Physics and Astrophysics, and Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)
2. Nuclear Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA (United States)
3. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA (United States)
4. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC (United States)
5. Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

The MAJORANA Collaboration is constructing the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR, an ultra-low background, modular, HPGe detector array with a mass of 44-kg (29 kg {sup 76}Ge and 15 kg {sup nat}Ge) to search for neutrinoless double beta decay in {sup 76}Ge. The next generation of tonne-scale Ge-based neutrinoless double beta decay searches will probe the neutrino mass scale in the inverted-hierarchy region. The MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR is envisioned to demonstrate a path forward to achieve a background rate at or below 1 count/tonne/year in the 4 keV region of interest around the Q-value of 2039 keV. The MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR follows a modular implementation to be easily scalable to the next generation experiment. First, the prototype module was assembled; it has been continuously taking data from July 2014 to June 2015. Second, Module 1 with more than half of the total enriched detectors and some natural detectors has been assembled and it is being commissioned. Finally, the assembly of Module 2, which will complete MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR, is already in progress.

• OSTI ID: 22492660
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1686, Issue 1; Conference: MEDEX'15: Workshop on calculation of double-beta-decay matrix elements, Prague (Czech Republic), 9-12 Jun 2015; Other Information: (c) 2015 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
GERMANIUM 76
HIGH-PURITY GE DETECTORS
KEV RANGE 01-10
MASS
NEUTRINOS
Q-VALUE