AMoRE searches for the neutrinoless double beta decay using 100 kg of enriched ^{100}Mo. Scintillating molybdate crystals coupled with a metallic magnetic calorimeter operate at milli-Kelvin temperatures to measure the energy of electrons emitted in the decay. AMoRE-I is a demonstrator for the full-scale AMoRE, operated at the Yangyang Underground Laboratory for over two years. The exposure was 8.02 kg year (or 3.89 kg_{^{100}Mo} year), and the total background rate near the Q value was 0.025±0.002 counts/keV/kg/year. We observed no indication of 0νββ decay and report a new lower limit of the half-life of ^{100}Mo 0νββ decay as T_{1/2}^{0ν}>2.9×10^{24} yr at 90% confidence level. The effective Majorana mass limit range is m_{ββ}<(210-610) meV using nuclear matrix elements estimated in the framework of different models, including the recent shell model calculations.
The LEGEND Collaboration is searching for neutrinoless double-beta ( 0 ν β β ) decay by operating high-purity germanium detectors enriched in Ge 76 in a low-background liquid argon environment. Building on key technological innovations from the GERmanium Detector Array (GERDA) experiment and the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR experiment, LEGEND-200 has performed a first 0 ν β β decay search based on 61.0 kg yr of data. Over half of this exposure comes from our highest performing detectors, including newly developed inverted-coaxial detectors, and is characterized by an estimated background level of 0.5 − 0.2 + 0.3 cts / ( keV ton yr ) in the 0 ν β β decay signal region. A combined analysis of data from GERDA, the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR, and LEGEND-200, characterized by a 90% confidence level exclusion sensitivity of 2.8 × 10 26 yr on the half-life of 0 ν β β decay, reveals no evidence for a signal and sets a new observed lower limit at T 1 / 2 0 ν > 1.9 × 10 26 yr (90% confidence level). Assuming the decay is mediated by Majorana neutrinos, this corresponds to an upper limit on the effective Majorana mass in the range m β β < 75 – 200 meV , depending on the adopted nuclear matrix element.
RED-100 is a two-phase liquid xenon time projection chamber with an active volume containing 126 kg of liquid xenon. The detector was exposed to an antineutrino flux of about 1.4 × 10 13 cm − 2 s − 1 at a distance of 19 m from the 3.1 GW Kalinin nuclear power plant reactor core. The comparison of data from 331 kg · days with the reactor on and 106 kg · days with the reactor off shows no statistically significant excess and the constraint on coherent elastic scattering of antineutrinos off xenon nuclei cross section is given.
1 April 2016 in Nuclear and Particle Physics Proceedings
The GERDA (GERmanium Detector Array) is an experiment for the search of neutrinoless double beta decay (0 nu beta beta) in Ge-76, located at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso of INFN (Italy). In the first phase of the experiment, a 90% confidence level (C.L.) sensitivity of 2.4 . 10(25) yr on the 0 nu beta beta decay half-life was achieved with a 21.6 kg.yr exposure and an unprecedented background index in the region of interest of 10(-2) counts/(keV.kg.yr). No excess of signal events was found, and an experimental lower limit on the half-life of 2.1 . 10(25) yr (90% C.L.) was established. Correspondingly, the limit on the effective Majorana neutrino mass is m(ee) < 0.2-0.4 eV, depending on the considered nuclear matrix element. The previous claim for evidence of a 0 nu beta beta decay signal is strongly disfavored, and the field of research is open again