Abstract
The MAJORANA Collaboration is constructing the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR, an ultralow background, 40-kg modular high purity Ge (HPGe) detector array to search for neutrinoless double-beta decay (0νββ-decay) in 76Ge. The goal of the experiment is to demonstrate a background rate at or below 3 counts/(t-y) in the 4 keV region of interest (ROI) around the 2039 keV Q-value for 76Ge 0νββ-decay. In this paper, the status of the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR, including its design and measurements of properties of the HPGe crystals is presented.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
L. Camilleri, E. Lisi, and J. F. Wilkerson, “Neutrino masses and mixings: Status and prospects,” Ann. Rev. Nucl. Part. Sci. 58, 343–369 (2008).
F. T. Avignone, S. R. Elliott and J. Engel, “Double beta decay, Majorana neutrinos, and neutrino nass,” Rev. Mod. Phys. 80, 481–516 (2008).
M. Gell-Mann, P. Ramond, and R. Slansky, Supergravity. Amsterdam: North-Holland (1979).
R. N. Mohapatra and G. Senjanovic, “Neutrino mass and spontaneous parity violation,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 44, 912–915 (1980).
J. Vergados, H. Ejiri, and F. Simkovic, “Theory of neutrinoless double-beta decay,” Rept. Prog. Phys. 75, 106301 (2012).
L. Baudis et al. (The Heidelberg-Moscow experiment), “Limits on the Majorana neutrino mass in the 0.1 eV range,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 41–44 (1999).
C. E. Aalseth et al. (The IGEX Collab.), “IGEX 76Ge neutrinoless double-beta decay experiment: Prospects for next generation experiments,” Phys. Rev. D 65, 092007 (2002).
H. V. Klapdor-Kleingrothaus and I. V. Krivosheina, “The evidence for the observation of 0nu beta beta decay: The identification of 0nu beta beta events from the full spectra,” Mod. Phys. Lett. A21, 1547–1566 (2006).
M. Agostini et al. (The GERDA Collab.), “Results on neutrinoless double- decay of 76Ge from phase I of the GERDA experiment,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 122503 (2013).
A. Gando et al. (The KamLAND-Zen experiment), “Limit on neutrinoless decay of 136Xe from the first phase of KamLAND-Zen and comparison with the positive claim in 76Ge,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 062502 (2013).
J. B. Albert et al. (The EXO Collab.), “Improved measurement of the half-life of 136Xe with the EXO-200 detector,” Phys. Rev. C 89, 015502 (2014).
N. Abgrall et al. (The MAJORANA Collab.), “The Majorana Demonstrator neutrinoless double-beta decay experiment,” Adv. High Energy Phys., 365432 (2014).
W. Bugg, Yu. Efremenko, and S. Vasilyev, “Large plastic scintillator panels with WLS fiber readout: Optimization of components,” Nucl. Instr. Meth. A 758, 91–96 (2014).
J. Heise, “The Sanford underground research facility at Homestake,” arXiv:1503.01112v2 [physics-ins.det]
E. W. Hoppe, E. E. Mintzer, C. E. Aalseth, D. J. Edwards, O. T. Farmer III, J. E. Fast, D. C. Gerlach, M. Liezers, and H. S. Miley, “Microscopic evaluation of contaminants in ultra-high purity copper,” J. Radioanal. Nucl. Chem. 282, 315–320 (2009).
Meriden, Connecticut, USA: Canberra Industries, 2009.
Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA: ORTEC, 2009.
M. A. Howe, G. A. Cox, P. J. Harvey, F. McGirt, K. Rielage, J. F. Wilkerson, and J. M. Wouters, “Sudbury neutrino observatory neutral current detector acquisition software overview,” Proceedings of IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, 2004, vol. 51, pp. 878–883.
P. N. Luke, F. S. Goulding, N. W. Madden, and R. H. Pehl, “Low capacitance large volume shapedfield germanium detector,” Proceedings of IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, 1989, vol. 36, pp. 926–930.
P. S. Barbeau, J. I. Collar, and O. Tench, “Large-mass ultralow noise germanium detectors: Performance and applications in neutrino and astroparticle physics,” JCAP 2007 (09), 9 (2007).
D. Budjas, M. B. Heider, O. Chkvorets, N. Khanbekov, and S. Schonert, “Pulse shape discrimination studies with a broad energy germanium detector for signal identification and background suppression in the GERDA double beta decay experiment,” JINST 4, 1–23 (2009).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Consortia
Corresponding author
Additional information
Talk at The International Workshop on Prospects of Particle Physics: “Neutrino Physics and Astrophysics” February 1–8, 2015, Valday, Russia.
The article is published in the original.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Vasilyev, S., Abgrall, N., Arnquist, I.J. et al. Status of the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR. Phys. Part. Nuclei 48, 27–33 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063779616060253
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063779616060253