Bochum 2009 – scientific programme
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HK: Fachverband Hadronen und Kerne
HK 26: Nuclear Structure and Dynamics I
HK 26.6: Talk
Tuesday, March 17, 2009, 15:45–16:00, H-ZO 40
Neutron Activation of 76Ge — •Georg Meierhofer1, Petra Kudejova2,3, Lea Canella3, Peter Grabmayr1, Josef Jochum1, and Jan Jolie2 — 1Kepler Center for Astro and Particle Physics, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany — 2Institut für Kernphysik, Universität zu Köln, 50937 Cologne, Germany — 3Institut für Radiochemie, Technische Universität München, 85748 Garching, Germany
The observation of neutrinoless double beta decay is a proof of the Majorana nature of the neutrino. The half-lives for these decays are very long (for 76Ge: >1025 y), therefore background reduction is crucial in double beta experiments. To reduce background from cosmic rays, these experiments are built underground.
The Gerda experiment [1] at the Gran Sasso Laboratory (LNGS) in Italy searches for the neutrinoless double beta decay in 76Ge, an ideal candidate as it can be source and detector at the same time.
A main contribution to the backround arises from the prompt gamma cascades after neutron capture by 76Ge and the following β−-decay of 77Ge. As the prompt gamma decay scheme is poorly known, measurements with isotopically enriched germanium targets were carried out at the PGAA facility at the FRM II (Munich). The measured neutron capture cross section and prompt gamma ray spectra will be used in further MC simulations for the Gerda experiment.
[1] GERDA, Proposal to LNGS, 2004
This work was supported by BMBF (05CD5VT1).