Göttingen 2012 – scientific programme

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T: Fachverband Teilchenphysik

T 111: Niederenergie-Neutrinophysik/Suche nach Dunkler Materie 6

T 111.6: Talk

Wednesday, February 29, 2012, 18:10–18:25, ZHG 103

Monte–Carlo based background studies for the COBRA Experiment — •Nadine Heidrich — Universität Hamburg, Institut für Experimentalphysik, Hamburg, D

COBRA is a next–generation experiment searching for neutrinoless double beta decay using CdZnTe semiconductor detectors. The main focus is on Cd-116, with a decay energy of 2814 keV well above the highest naturally occurring gamma lines.
The concept for a large scale set–up consists of an array of CdZnTe detectors with a total mass of 420 kg enriched in ¹¹⁶Cd up to 90 %. With a background rate in the order of 10⁻³ counts/keV/kg/year, the experiment would be sensitive to a half–life larger than 10²⁶ years, corresponding to a Majorana mass term m_ββ smaller than 50 meV.
The broad R&D program encompasses many different activities, such as a test set–up at LNGS, able to house upto 64 CPG detectors with a size of 1 cm³. At the moment 16 detectors are running with a new FADC readout.
Because of a high half–life, the background has to be reduced significantly. Background sources are for example neutrons, natural decay chains and the 2νββ decay. Besides the development of a shielding, the effects of different background sources are studied based on Monte–Carlo simulations. In the talk the current status of the Monte–Carlo survey is presented and discussed.