The MAJORANA collaboration is pursuing the development of the so-called MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR. The DEMONSTRATOR is intended to perform research and development towards a tonne-scale germanium-based experiment to search for the neutrinoless double-beta decay of 76Ge. The DEMONSTRATOR can also perform a competitive direct dark matter search for light WIMPs in the 1-10GeV/c2 mass range. It will consist of approximately 60 kg. of germanium detectors in an ultra-low background shield located deep underground at the Sanford Underground Laboratory in Lead, SD. The DEMONSTRATOR will also perform background and technology studies, and half of the detector mass will be enriched germanium. This talk will review the motivation, design, technology and status of the Demonstrator.
Revised: January 12, 2012 |
Published: December 17, 2009
Citation
Aalseth C.E., M. Amman, J.F. Amsbaugh, F.T. Avignone, H.O. Back, A. Barabash, and P. Barbeau, et al. 2009.The MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR: An R&D project towards a tonne-scale germanium neutrinoless double-beta decay search. In 10th Conference on the Intersections of Particle and Nuclear Physics: AIP Conference Proceedings, edited by ML Marshak, 1182, 88-91. Melville, New York:American Institute of Physics.PNNL-SA-67240.doi:10.1063/1.3293951