MAJORANA Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay DUSEL R&D

Wilkerson, John F.

关键词: CRYOSTATS;    DECAY;    DESIGN;    DETECTION;    EFFICIENCY;    ELECTRODEPOSITION;    EVALUATION;    FABRICATION;    NEUTRINOS;    OPTIMIZATION;    PROCUREMENT;   

DOI  :  10.2172/963734
RP-ID  :  DOE/ER/41526- Final Report
PID  :  OSTI ID: 963734
Others  :  TRN: US1103398

学科分类：物理（综合）

美国|英语

来源: SciTech Connect

【 摘 要 】

The Majorana research and development is addressing key issues and risks related to the collaboration's goal of undertaking a search for neutrinoless double-beta decay (0{nu}{beta}{beta}) in {sup 76}Ge using an array of hyper-pure Ge-diodes (HPGe). The observation of this decay would provide critical insight into our understanding of neutrinos, yielding definitive evidence that neutrinos are Majorana particles and providing information on the absolute mass of neutrinos. Achieving sensitivities to 0{nu}{beta}{beta} decay half-lives on the order of 10{sup 26} years requires ultra-low backgrounds in the 2039 keV region where a 0{nu}{beta}{beta} decay peak would be observed. The goal of our R&D program has been to demonstrate the feasibility of all components of Majorana and to provide an integrated evaluation framework, allowing for optimization of these components in terms of background, background suppression, and signal detection efficiency and acceptance. This report covers work carried out by Majorana collaboration members at the University of Washington as part of the overall Majorana collaboration activities. Specifically the Majorana group at the University of Washington was involved in moving forward on demonstrating technology for clean large-scale cryostats and mounting the HPGe crystals in low-mass holders. The UW activities included assistance in the procurement and assembly of an electroforming system for large size cryostats, and design and fabrication of prototype crystal mounting hardware.