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Register a new userThe search for 0nbb decay with the GERDA experiment: status and prospects
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B. Majorovits
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The GERDA experiment is designed to search for neutrinoless double beta decay of 76Ge using HPGe detectors directly immersed into liquid argon. In its first phase the GERDA experiment has yielded a half life limit on this decay of T_1/2 > 2.1*10^25 yr. A background model has been developed. It explains the measured spectrum well, taking into account only components with distances to the detectors less then 2 cm. Competitive limits on Majoron accompanied double beta decay have been derived. Phase II of the experiment, now with additional liquid argon veto installed, is presently starting its commissioning phase. First commissioning spectra from calibration measurements are shown, proving that the liquid argon veto leads to a significant reduction of background events.
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The Gerda experiment designed to search for the neutrinoless double beta decay in 76Ge has successfully completed the first data collection. No signal excess is found, and a lower limit on the half life of the process is set, with T1/2 > 2.1x10^25 yr (90% CL). After a review of the experimental setup and of the main Phase I results, the hardware upgrade for Gerda Phase II is described, and the physics reach of the new data collection is reported.
Neutrinoless double-beta decay is a key process in particle physics. Its experimental investigation is the only viable method that can establish the Majorana nature of neutrinos, providing at the same time a sensitive inclusive test of lepton number violation. CROSS (Cryogenic Rare-event Observatory with Surface Sensitivity) aims at developing and testing a new bolometric technology to be applied to future large-scale experiments searching for neutrinoless double-beta decay of the promising nuclei $^{100}$Mo and $^{130}$Te. The limiting factor in large-scale bolometric searches for this rare process is the background induced by surface radioactive contamination, as shown by the results of the CUORE experiment. The basic concept of CROSS consists of rejecting this challenging background component by pulse-shape discrimination, assisted by a proper coating of the faces of the crystal containing the isotope of interest and serving as energy absorber of the bolometric detector. In this paper, we demonstrate that ultra-pure superconductive Al films deposited on the crystal surfaces act successfully as pulse-shape modifiers, both with fast and slow phonon sensors. Rejection factors higher than 99.9% of $alpha$ surface radioactivity have been demonstrated in a series of prototypes based on crystals of Li$_2$MoO$_4$ and TeO$_2$. We have also shown that point-like energy depositions can be identified up to a distance of $sim 1$ mm from the coated surface. The present program envisions an intermediate experiment to be installed underground in the Canfranc laboratory (Spain) in a CROSS-dedicated facility. This experiment, comprising $sim 3times 10^{25}$ nuclei of $^{100}$Mo, will be a general test of the CROSS technology as well as a worldwide competitive search for neutrinoless double-beta decay, with sensitivity to the effective Majorana mass down to 70 meV in the most favorable conditions.
The GERmanium Detector Array (GERDA) experiment located at the INFN Gran Sasso Laboratory (Italy), is looking for the neutrinoless double beta decay of Ge76, by using high-purity germanium detectors made from isotopically enriched material. The combination of the novel experimental design, the careful material selection for radio-purity and the active/passive shielding techniques result in a very low residual background at the Q-value of the decay, about 1e-3 counts/(keV kg yr). This makes GERDA the first experiment in the field to be background-free for the complete design exposure of 100 kg yr. A search for neutrinoless double beta decay was performed with a total exposure of 47.7 kg yr: 23.2 kg yr come from the second phase (Phase II) of the experiment, in which the background is reduced by about a factor of ten with respect to the previous phase. The analysis presented in this paper includes 12.4 kg yr of new Phase II data. No evidence for a possible signal is found: the lower limit for the half-life of Ge76 is 8.0e25 yr at 90% CL. The experimental median sensitivity is 5.8e25 yr. The experiment is currently taking data. As it is running in a background-free regime, its sensitivity grows linearly with exposure and it is expected to surpass 1e26 yr within 2018.
The Muon g-2 experiment at Fermilab will measure the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon to a precision of 140 parts per billion, which is a factor of four improvement over the previous E821 measurement at Brookhaven. The experiment will also extend the search for the muon electric dipole moment (EDM) by approximately two orders of magnitude. Both of these measurements are made by combining a precise measurement of the 1.45T storage ring magnetic field with an analysis of the modulation of the decay rate of the higher-energy positrons from the (anti-)muon decays recorded by 24 calorimeters and 3 straw tracking detectors. The current status of the experiment as well as results from the initial beam delivery and commissioning run in the summer of 2017 will be discussed.
A search for double-beta decays of 136Xe to excited states of 136Ba has been performed with the first phase data set of the KamLAND-Zen experiment. The 0+1, 2+1 and 2+2 transitions of 0{ u}{beta}{beta} decay were evaluated in an exposure of 89.5kg-yr of 136Xe, while the same transitions of 2{ u}{beta}{beta} decay were evaluated in an exposure of 61.8kg-yr. No excess over background was found for all decay modes. The lower half-life limits of the 2+1 state transitions of 0{ u}{beta}{beta} and 2{ u}{beta}{beta} decay were improved to T(0{ u}, 0+ rightarrow 2+) > 2.6times10^25 yr and T(2{ u}, 0+ rightarrow 2+) > 4.6times10^23 yr (90% C.L.), respectively. We report on the first experimental lower half-life limits for the transitions to the 0+1 state of 136Xe for 0{ u}{beta}{beta} and 2{ u}{beta}{beta} decay. They are T (0{ u}, 0+ rightarrow 0+) > 2.4times10^25 yr and T(2{ u}, 0+ rightarrow 0+) > 8.3times10^23 yr (90% C.L.). The transitions to the 2+2 states are also evaluated for the first time to be T(0{ u}, 0+ rightarrow 2+) > 2.6times10^25 yr and T(2{ u}, 0+ rightarrow 2+) > 9.0times10^23 yr (90% C.L.). These results are compared to recent theoretical predictions.
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