Speaker
Ms
Julieta Gruszko
(University of Washington)
Description
Neutrinoless double beta decay searches play a major role in determining neutrino properties, in particular the Majorana or Dirac nature of the neutrino and the absolute scale of the neutrino mass. The consequences of these searches go beyond neutrino physics, with implications for Grand Unification and leptogenesis. The Majorana Collaboration is assembling a low-background array of high purity Germanium (HPGe) detectors to search for neutrinos double-beta decay in $^{76}$Ge. The MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR, which is currently being constructed and commissioned at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South Dakota, will contain 40 kg (30 kg enriched in $^{76}$Ge) of HPGe detectors. Its primary goal is to demonstrate the scalability and background required for a tonne-scale Ge experiment. This is accomplished via a modular design and projected background of less than 3 cnts/tonne-yr in the region of interest. The experiment is currently taking data with the first of its enriched detectors. Detector characterization, commissioning, and calibration data will be presented from enriched detectors and unenriched detectors operating in a shielded prototype module.
| Oral or Poster Presentation | Oral |
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Primary author
Ms
Julieta Gruszko
(University of Washington)
