Neutrino 2018 - XXVIII International Conference on Neutrino Physics and Astrophysics

Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay Search in Gerda

Not scheduled

20m

Kongresshaus Stadthalle Heidelberg (Heidelberg)

Poster 0vbb Poster (not participating in poster prize competition)

Speaker

Janina Hakenmüller (Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik)

Description

The Germanium Detector Array (GERDA) is currently the most sensitive experiment in search of the Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay (0νββ) of Ge-76, a process that violates lepton number conservation. GERDA operates an array of bare high-purity germanium detectors enriched in Ge-76 in a cryostat with 64 m³ of liquid argon at LNGS, Italy, at 3500 m w.e. The experiment is taking data since November 2011, commencing with Phase II after a major hardware upgrade in December 2015. Another upgrade is planned to be accomplished by the time of the conference. So far no signal was observed and a new lower limit on the 0νββ half-life T_1/2 ≥ 8.0 · 10²⁵ yr (90% C.L.) was obtained combining all data sets. Also, we have reached our background goal of ≤10^-3 cts/(keV·kg·yr). This poster gives an overview of the GERDA experiment up to the current upgrade. In particular, it presents the active background suppression methods and the latest analysis results.