The SuperNEMO Experiment

R. Benton Pahlka

Published 2008-10-17Version 1

The observation of neutrino oscillations has proven that neutrinos have mass. This is direct evidence of physics beyond the Standard Model. This discovery has renewed interest in neutrinoless double beta decay ($0\nu\beta\beta$) experiments which provide the only practical way to determine whether neutrinos are Majorana or Dirac particles. Such experiments also have the potential to determine the absolute scale of the neutrino mass and help resolve the neutrino mass hierarchy question. The NEMO-3 (Neutrino Ettore Majorana Observatory) is currently one of the most sensitive searches for neutrinoless double beta decay. The main goal of SuperNEMO is to extend the sensitivity of the NEMO-3 search for neutrinoless double beta decay (and to measure two-neutrino double beta $2\nu\beta\beta$ decay). The two isotopes under consideration for SuperNEMO are $^{82}$Se and $^{150}$Nd. The target sensitivity is a $0\nu\beta\beta$ decay half-life at the level of $10^{26}$ years which will explore the degenerate neutrino mass hierarchy down to 50 meV.