Probing Majorana neutrinos with double-ß decay.
Science
; 365(6460): 1445-1448, 2019 09 27.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-31488705
ABSTRACT
A discovery that neutrinos are Majorana fermions would have profound implications for particle physics and cosmology. The Majorana character of neutrinos would make possible the neutrinoless double-ß (0νßß) decay, a matter-creating process without the balancing emission of antimatter. The GERDA Collaboration searches for the 0νßß decay of 76Ge by operating bare germanium detectors in an active liquid argon shield. With a total exposure of 82.4 kgâ
year, we observe no signal and derive a lower half-life limit of T 1/2 > 0.9 × 1026 years (90% C.L.). Our T 1/2 sensitivity, assuming no signal, is 1.1 × 1026 years. Combining the latter with those from other 0νßß decay searches yields a sensitivity to the effective Majorana neutrino mass of 0.07 to 0.16 electron volts.
Texto completo:
1
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2019
Tipo de documento:
Article