7–9 Apr 2014
Royal Holloway, University of London
Europe/London timezone
Institute of Physics 2014 Joint High Energy Particle Physics and Astro Particle Physics Groups Annual Meeting

Status of the SuperNEMO experiment

8 Apr 2014, 13:30
15m
Room E (Windsor Building)

Room E

Windsor Building

contributed talk The Neutrino Sector Parallel 1E

Speaker

Pawel Guzowski (University of Manchester)

Description

The SuperNEMO experiment aims to search for neutrinoless double beta decay. If observed, this would show that the neutrino is its own antiparticle and be the first evidence for total lepton number violation. With 100 kg of source, a half-life sensitivity of order $10^{26}$ years (effective neutrino mass sensitivity down to 50 meV) can be achieved. The experimental techniques are similar to the predecessor NEMO-3 experiment, with a tracker-calorimeter setup. Decay electrons from a source foil pass through a magnetised tracker, aiding in particle identification, and the calorimeter measures their energy. The setup is able to measure the angular distribution of the decay products, which can aid in determining the underlying physical process behind the lepton number violation if observed. The unique design with separation of source and detector also allows the study of different isotopes concurrently. To prove the challenging radiopurity requirements of the experiment are achievable, a Demonstrator module is currently under construction and will start taking data next year. The current status of the Demonstrator production will be presented.

Primary author

Pawel Guzowski (University of Manchester)

Presentation materials