Journal Article

Background-free search for neutrinoless double-Beta decay of ^sup 76^Ge with GERDA

Lebedev, V I, Smolnikov, A, Miloradovic, M, Grabmayr, P, von Sturm, K, Hegai, A, Kirpichnikov, I V, Laubenstein, M, Balata, M, Kazalov, V, Selivanenko, O, Wester, T, Belogurov, S, Zhukov, S V, Kirsch, A, Heisel, M, Mingazheva, R, Riboldi, S, Belyaev, S T, Liao, H Y, Pelczar, K, Schulz, O, Moseev, P, Macolino, C, Schmitt, C, Falkenstein, R, Kornoukhov, V N, Kish, A, Schneider, B, Shevchik, E, Doroshkevich, E, Lubsandorzhiev, B, Wojcik, M, Knöpfle, K T, Hofmann, W, Wagner, V, Hult, M, Vasenko, A A, Agostini, M, Baudis, L, Bellotti, E, Panas, K, Chernogorov, A, Nemchenok, I, Pullia, A, Kochetov, O, Zhitnikov, I, Allardt, M, Simgen, H, Stanco, L, Freund, K, Brugnera, R, Shirchenko, M, Gangapshev, A, Bettini, A, Kuzminov, V V, Wegmann, A, Zuzel, G, Lutter, G, Schütz, A-K, Kneißl, R, Misiaszek, M, Bode, T, Caldwell, A, Gooch, C, Di Marco, N, Domula, A, Cattadori, C, Garfagnini, A, Barabanov, I, Majorovits, B, Frodyma, N, Lehnert, B, Gurentsov, V, Gusev, K, Egorov, V, Walter, M, di Vacri, A, Wiesinger, C, Fedorova, O, Hakenmüller, J, Schönert, S, Salathe, M, Lindner, M, Yanovich, E, Schwingenheuer, B, Csáthy, J Janicskó, Lazzaro, A, Zinatulina, D, Maneschg, W, D'Andrea

2017

Overview

The detectors are made from germanium with the fraction of the 76Ge isotope enriched from 7.8% to about 87%. Since the source and the detector of Ovßß decay are identical in this calorimetric approach, the detection efficiency is high. A rock overburden of about 3,500 m water equivalent removes the hadronic components of cosmic ray showers and reduces the muon flux at the experiment by six orders of magnitude, to 1.2 muons m-2 h-1.

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
• Subject: Cosmic rays / Cosmology / Decay / Experiments / Germanium / Overburden / Particle physics / Sensors