3–10 Aug 2016
Chicago IL USA
US/Central timezone
There is a live webcast for this event.

Status of SuperNEMO demonstrator (15' + 5')

5 Aug 2016, 17:40
20m
Chicago 6

Chicago 6

Oral Presentation Neutrino Physics Neutrino Physics

Speaker

Frédéric Perrot

Description

SuperNEMO is a next generation neutrinoless double beta decay experiment with a design capability to reach a half-life sensitivity of 10$^{26}$ years with 100 kg of enriched double beta decay isotopes corresponding to an effective Majorana neutrino mass of $m_{\beta \beta }$ < 50 - 100 meV. The concept of the detector has been validated by the successful NEMO3 experiment. It is based on the possibility to measure different isotopes, to track the two emitted electrons, to measure all kinematic parameters (individual energy of the electrons, angular distribution) and then, to reduce drastically the background. The detector consists of a thin central source foil sandwiched by two tracker volumes made of drift chambers working in Geiger mode and surrounded by a calorimeter made of plastic scintillators coupled to low radioactive photomultipliers to measure the energy of the electrons. The first phase of the experiment is the SuperNEMO demonstrator able to accommodate 7 kg of enriched ββ emitter isotopes. It is currently under construction at the Modane Underground Laboratory (LSM). The objective is to demonstrate that the required radiopurity levels for the full detector can be reached: < 2 μBq/kg in $^{208}$Tl and < 10 μBq/kg in $^{214}$Bi in the source foil and less than 150 μBq/m3 in the tracker gas. For the demonstrator with 7 kg of enriched 82Se, no background is expected for 2.5 years of data acquisition leading to a half-live sensitivity of 6.10$^{24}$ years corresponding to a neutrino mass sensitivity $m_{\beta \beta }$ < 0.2 - 0.4 eV. The main achievements of the R&D concerning the calorimeter, the tracker, the source foils and low radioactive measurements will be presented as well as the status of the installation of the detector at LSM.

Primary author

Frédéric Perrot

Co-author

FABRICE PIQUEMAL (CNRS/IN2P3)

Presentation materials