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HK: Fachverband Physik der Hadronen und Kerne

HK 15: Astroteilchenphysik

HK 15.2: Gruppenbericht

Montag, 17. März 2014, 17:00–17:30, HZ 9

GERDA and the search for neutrinoless double beta decay: first results and perspectives — •Matteo Agostini for the GERDA collaboration — Physik Department and Excellence Cluster Universe, Technische Universität München, Germany

Neutrinoless double beta decay is a lepton-number-violating nuclear transition predicted by several extensions of the Standard Model. The Gerda experiment searches for this transition in ⁷⁶Ge by operating bare Ge detectors in liquid Ar. The talk focuses on the results of data acquired during Phase I of the experiment, in which 21.6 kg·yr of exposure were accumulated with a background index of about 0.01 cts/(keV·kg·yr). No signal was observed and a lower limit was derived for the half-life of neutrinoless double beta decay of ⁷⁶Ge, T_1/2>2.1·10²⁵ yr (90% C.L.). The experiment is currently undergoing a major upgrade in preparation for the next phase of data taking. Thanks to an increased target mass, an improved energy resolution and the introduction of novel background reduction techniques, the sensitivity of Gerda will increase of about one order of magnitude in a few years of operation.