Year: 2015
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: If neutrinos are Majorana particles, i.e. fermions that are their own antiparticles, then neutrinoless double-beta (0νββ) decay is possible.In such a process two neutrons can simultaneously decay into two protons and two electrons without emitting neutrinos.Neutrinos being Majorana particles would explicitly violate lepton number conservation, and might play a role in the matter-antimatter asymmetry in the universe.The Majorana Demonstrator experiment is under construction at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, SD and will search for the neutrinoless double-beta (0νββ) decay of the 76 Ge isotope.The goal of the experiment is to demonstrate that it is possible to achieve a sufficiently low background rate in the 4 keV region of interest (ROI) around the 2039 keV Q-value to justify building a tonne-scale experiment.In this paper, we discuss the physics and design of the Majorana Demonstrator, its approach to achieving ultra-low background and the status of the experiment.
Authors: Yu. Efremenko, N. Abgrall, I. J. Arnquist, F. T. Avignone, C. X. Baldenegro-Barrera, A. S. Barabash, F. E. Bertrand, A. W. Bradley, V. Brudanin, M. Busch, M. Buuck, D. Byram, A. S. Caldwell, Y.-D. Chan, C. D. Christofferson, C. Cuesta, J. A. Detwiler, H. Ejiri, S. R. Elliott, A. Galindo-Uribarri, T. Gilliss, G. K. Giovanetti, J. Goett, M. P. Green, J. Gruszko, I. Guinn, V. E. Guiseppe, R. Henning, E. W. Hoppe, S. Howard, M. A. Howe, B. R. Jasinski, K. J. Keeter, M. F. Kidd, S. I. Konovalov, R. T. Kouzes, B. D. LaFerriere, J. Leon, J. MacMullin, R. D. Martin, S. J. Meijer, S. Mertens, J. L. Orrell, C. O'Shaughnessy, A. W. P. Poon, D. C. Radford, J. Rager, K. Rielage, R. G. H. Robertson, E. Romero-Romero, B. Shanks, M. Shirchenko, N. Snyder, A. M. Suriano, D. Tedeschi, J. E. Trimble, R. L. Varner, S. Vasilyev, K. Vetter, K. Vorren, B. R. White, J. F. Wilkerson, C. Wiseman, W. Xu, E. Yakushev, C.-H. Yu, V. Yumatov, I. Zhitnikov
Institutions: University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, University of South Carolina, Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Duke University, Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory, University of Washington, University of South Dakota, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Research Center for Nuclear Physics, The University of Osaka, The University of Osaka, Los Alamos National Laboratory, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Black Hills State University, Tennessee Technological University
Language: English
Topic: Neutrino Physics Research
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: U.S. Department of Energy
Awards: G286898171, G5657628048
OpenAlex ID: W3215995099