Experimental bounds on. beta beta. -decay, cold dark matter and solar axions with an ultralow background Ge detector

Conference · Wed Oct 08 04:00:00 EDT 1986

OSTI ID:6690692

Ahlen, S P; Brodzinski, R L; Dimopolous, S; Drukier, A K; Gelmini, G; Lynn, B W; Miley, H S; Reeves, J H; Spergel, D N

The PNL/USC ultralow background prototype Ge detector in the Homestake goldmine is being applied to searches for 0 nu ..beta beta..-decay, dark matter candidates and solar axions. An upper bound of 2.2 eV has been placed on the Majorana mass of the electron neutrino. The low energy data exclude particles with spin independent Z/sup 0/ exchange interactions having masses between 20 GeV and 5 TeV as significant contributors to the cold dark matter of the halo of our galaxy. The existence of stable Dirac neutrinos more massive than 20 GeV is also excluded except for a narrow region around the Z/sup 0/ resonance. Finally, Dine-Fischler-Srednicki (DFS) axion models with F/2x'/sub e/ less than or equal to 0.5 x 10/sup 7/ GeV are ruled out by the maximum count rate attributable to solar axions. 36 refs., 11 figs.

• Research Organization: South Carolina Univ., Columbia (USA); Boston Univ., MA (USA); Pacific Northwest Lab., Richland, WA (USA); Stanford Univ., CA (USA); Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA (USA); Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC03-76SF00515; AC06-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 6690692
• Report Number(s): PNL-SA-14385; CONF-8605182-4; ON: DE87002065
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640101* -- Astrophysics & Cosmology-- Cosmic Radiation
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
AXIONS
BETA DECAY
BETA-MINUS DECAY
BOSONS
DECAY
DOUBLE BETA DECAY
ELECTRON NEUTRINOS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
FERMIONS
GE SEMICONDUCTOR DETECTORS
GOLDSTONE BOSONS
INTERMEDIATE BOSONS
INTERMEDIATE VECTOR BOSONS
LEPTONS
MASSLESS PARTICLES
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
NEUTRINOS
NONLUMINOUS MATTER
POSTULATED PARTICLES
RADIATION DETECTORS
RADIATIONS
SEMICONDUCTOR DETECTORS
SOLAR NEUTRINOS
SOLAR PARTICLES
SOLAR RADIATION
STELLAR RADIATION
Z NEUTRAL BOSONS