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T: Fachverband Teilchenphysik
T 75: Neutrino Physics without Accelerators 6
T 75.5: Talk
Wednesday, March 23, 2022, 17:20–17:35, T-H34
New Limit on the radiative 0νECEC of 36Ar from GERDA Phase II Data — •Michele Korosec1, Elisabetta Bossio1, and Christoph Wiesinger2 for the GERDA collaboration — 1Physik-Department, Technische Universität München — 2Max-Planck-Institut für Physik, München
Neutrinoless double electron capture (0νECEC) is a theoretically possible decay that would prove lepton number violation, which is forbidden by the Standard Model of Physics, and therefore provide evidence for the Majorana nature of neutrinos. The GERmanium Detector Array (GERDA) experiment offers the possibility to search for 0νECEC of 36Ar which is one of the isotopes that theoretically allows this rare decay.
A search for neutrinoless double electron capture of 36Ar was conducted based on Phase II data from the GERDA experiment, located at the Gran Sasso Laboratory of INFN, Italy. A simultaneous fit to multiple datasets has been performed in which no signal for the decay has been observed. However, a new, preliminary experimental lower limit on the half-life of 0νECEC in 36Ar has been established with the CLs method at T1/2 > 1.22 · 1022 yr (90% C.L.) which will take over from the previous best limit of T1/2 > 3.6 · 1021 years (90% C.I.) [1] which was found in GERDA Phase I.
This research is supported by the BMBF through the Verbundforschung 05A20WO2 and by the DFG through the Excellence Cluster ORIGINS and the SFB1258.
[1] GERDA Collaboration, Eur.Phys.J.C 76 (2016) 12, 652