Speaker
Description
The GERDA (GERmanium Detector Array) collaboration operated high-purity Ge detectors enriched in $^{76}$Ge at LNGS to search for neutrinoless double beta decay ($0\nu\beta\beta$). An observation would imply both the Majorana nature of neutrinos and the violation of lepton number conservation, with important consequences for the neutrino mass scale, and the matter-antimatter asymmetry in the Universe. The operation of high resolution Ge detectors in an active liquid Ar shield combined with a powerful pulse shape discrimination allowed the collection of a background-free data set. With a total exposure of 127.2 kg yr, a lower limit on the half-life of $0\nu\beta\beta$ in $^{76}$Ge of $T_{1/2} > 1.8 \times 10^{26}$ yr at 90% C.L was set, a world-leading constraint in the search for $0\nu\beta\beta$. In this talk I will give an overview of the experimental techniques exploited to reach the final result.
| First author | Yannick Mueller |
|---|---|
| yannmu@physik.uzh.ch | |
| Collaboration / Activity | GERDA collaboration |
