Speaker
Description
The search for neutrinoless double beta (0$\nu\beta\beta$) decay is considered the most promising method to prove the Majorana nature of neutrinos, and its discovery would provide insight on the mass hierarchy and on the absolute mass scale of the neutrino. The discovery of 0$\nu\beta\beta$ decay would inform theories predicting the observed matter anti-matter asymmetry of the Universe being a consequence of lepton number violation through leptogenesis.
Building upon the success of GERDA and MAJORANA experiments, the LEGEND (Large Enriched Germanium Detector for Neutrinoless bb Decay) Collaboration aims at building a $^{76}$Ge-based 0$\nu\beta\beta$ experiment with a sensitivity on the half-life beyond $10^{28}$ years, to fully span the inverted neutrino mass ordering region. In the first phase, LEGEND-200, 200 kg of enriched germanium detectors are being deployed in an upgraded version of the GERDA facility at LNGS. With an exposure of 1 t$\cdot$yr and a BI of 0.5 cts/(FWHM$\cdot$t$\cdot$yr), LEGEND-200 will be able to reach a sensitivity of about $10^{27}$ yr at 90% C.L. In the second phase, the enriched germanium mass will be increased to 1000 kg. With a background index of 0.025 cts/(FWHM$\cdot$t$\cdot$yr) and an exposure of 10 t$\cdot$yr, LEGEND-1000 aims to reach a 3$\sigma$ half-life discovery sensitivity of 1.3$\times 10^{28}$ yr.
In this talk an overview of the LEGEND project will be presented together with the operational status and current results of LEGEND-200.
| Primary experiment | The LEGEND collaboration |
|---|
