The MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR: A Search for Neutrinoless Double-beta Decay of Germanium-76

MAJORANA Collaboration, A. G. Schubert, E. Aguayo, F. T. Avignone III, H. O. Back, A. S. Barabash, M. Bergevin, F. E. Bertrand, M. Boswell, V. Brudanin, M. Busch, Y-D. Chan, C. D. Christofferson, J. I. Collar, D. C. Combs, R. J. Cooper, J. A. Detwiler, J. Leon, P. J. Doe, Yu. Efremenko, V. Egorov, H. Ejiri, S. R. Elliott, J. Esterline, J. E. Fast, N. Fields, P. Finnerty, F. M. Fraenkle, V. M. Gehman, G. K. Giovanetti, M. P. Green, V. E. Guiseppe, K. Gusey, A. L. Hallin, R. Hazama, R. Henning, A. Hime, E. W. Hoppe, M. Horton, S. Howard, M. A. Howe, R. A. Johnson, K. J. Keeter, M. E. Keillor, C. Keller, J. D. Kephart, M. F. Kidd, A. Knecht, O. Kochetov, S. I. Konovalov, R. T. Kouzes, B. LaFerriere, B. H. LaRoque, L. E. Leviner, J. C. Loach, S. MacMullin, M. G. Marino, R. D. Martin, D. -M. Mei, J. Merriman, M. L. Miller, L. Mizouni, M. Nomachi, J. L. Orrell, N. Overman, D. G. Phillips II, A. W. P. Poon, G. Perumpilly, G. Prior, D. C. Radford, K. Rielage, R. G. H. Robertson, M. C. Ronquest, T. Shima, M. Shirchenko, K. J. Snavely, V. Sobolev, D. Steele, J. Strain, K. Thomas, V. Timkin, W. Tornow, I. Vanyushin, R. L. Varner, K. Vetter, K. Vorren, J. F. Wilkerson, B. A. Wolfe, E. Yakushev, A. R. Young, C. ?H. Yu, V. Yumatov, C. Zhan

Published 2011-09-07Version 1

The observation of neutrinoless double-beta decay would determine whether the neutrino is a Majorana particle and provide information on the absolute scale of neutrino mass. The MAJORANA Collaboration is constructing the DEMONSTRATOR, an array of germanium detectors, to search for neutrinoless double-beta decay of 76-Ge. The DEMONSTRATOR will contain 40 kg of germanium; up to 30 kg will be enriched to 86% in 76-Ge. The DEMONSTRATOR will be deployed deep underground in an ultra-low-background shielded environment. Operation of the DEMONSTRATOR aims to determine whether a future tonne-scale germanium experiment can achieve a background goal of one count per tonne-year in a 4-keV region of interest around the 76-Ge neutrinoless double-beta decay Q-value of 2039 keV.