Dortmund 2021 – scientific programme
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T: Fachverband Teilchenphysik
T 68: Neutrino physics without accelerators III
T 68.9: Talk
Wednesday, March 17, 2021, 18:05–18:20, Tr
Search for 0νECEC of 36Ar in GERDA Phase II — •Michele Korosec, Elisabetta Bossio, and Christoph Wiesinger for the GERDA collaboration — Physik-Department, Technische Universität München, Garching
The main objective of the GERmanium Detector Array (GERDA) experiment at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS, Italy) is to prove the Majorana nature of neutrinos through the discovery of the lepton-violating neutrinoless double-beta decay of 76Ge. Similarly, an 36Ar atom can capture two electrons in a process called neutrinoless double electron capture (0νECEC) which likewise can be studied in the GERDA experiment.
The GERDA Phase I analysis of 0νECEC in 36Ar resulted in the current best lower limit for the half-life of T1/2 > 3.6 × 1021 years [1] for this process. The introduction of the liquid argon veto system in Phase II allowed for a significant background reduction compared to Phase I. Additionally, Phase II of the experiment offers more than four times the exposure.
According to a preliminary estimate, the Phase II sensitivity will double the Phase I result. The current status quo on the analysis of 0νECEC of 36Ar in GERDA Phase II will be presented in this contribution.
This work has been supported in part by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) and the German Research Foundation (DFG) via the SFB1258.
[1] GERDA Collaboration, Eur.Phys.J.C 76 (2016) 12, 652