Neutrinoless double beta decay searches play a major role in determining
neutrino properties, in particular the Majorana or Dirac nature
of the neutrino and the absolute scale of the neutrino mass. The consequences
of these searches go beyond neutrino physics, with implications
for Grand Unification and leptogenesis. The Majorana Collaboration
is assembling a low-background array of high purity Germanium (HPGe)
detectors to search for neutrinoless double-beta decay in 76Ge. The Majorana
Demonstrator, which is currently being constructed and commissioned
at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South
Dakota, will contain 44 kg (30 kg enriched in 76Ge) of HPGe detectors. Its
primary goal is to demonstrate the scalability and background required
for a tonne-scale Ge experiment. This is accomplished via a modular design
and projected background of less than 3 cnts/tonne-yr in the region
of interest. The experiment is currently taking data with the first of its
enriched detectors.
Revised: June 6, 2018 |
Published: August 8, 2015
Citation
Gruszko J., M. Buuck, C. Cuesta, J.A. Detwiler, I. Guinn, J.D. Leon, and R. Robertson, et al. 2015.Status Update of the Majorana Demonstrator Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay Experiment. In Proceedings of the American Physical Society Division of Particles and Fields Conference, August 4-8, 2015, Ann Arbor, Michigan, Paper No. DPF2015-1. Ridge, New York:American Physical Society.PNNL-SA-123176.