Speaker
Dr
Roman Hiller
(UZH)
Description
The GERDA experiment searches for neutrinoless double beta decay of $^{76}$Ge.
A discovery of this hypothetical decay would imply the Majorana nature of neutrinos and violation of lepton number conservation.
To find this decay, with a half-life beyond 10$^{25}$ yr, gamma-ray spectrometers made from enriched $^{76}$Ge are operated directly immersed in liquid argon.
Instrumenting the argon-filled cryostat with photosensors, scintillation light enables vetoing external background to push the background level below 10$^{-3}$ cts/(keV kg yr).
Combined with the high energy resolution of germanium detectors, the sensitivity of GERDA will not be limited by background beyond an exposure of 100 kg yr.
With a major data release this year, the exposure has now reached almost 60 kg yr, making GERDA the first experiment in the field to reach a half-life sensitivity of 10$^{26}$ yr.
We will present the latest results of GERDA in the search for neutrinoless double beta decay.
Primary author
Dr
Roman Hiller
(UZH)
