Münster 2011 – scientific programme

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HK: Fachverband Physik der Hadronen und Kerne

HK 53: Astroteilchenphysik III

HK 53.1: Group Report

Thursday, March 24, 2011, 14:00–14:30, HS3

Commissioning of GERDA — •Alexey Lubashevskiy — Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, D-69117 Heidelberg

The study of neutrinoless double beta decay (DBD) is the most powerful approach to the fundamental question if the neutrino is a Majorana particle, i.e. its own anti-particle. The observation of neutrinoless DBD would not only establish the Majorana nature of the neutrino but also represent a determination of its effective mass if the nuclear matrix element is given. So far, the most sensitive results have been obtained with Ge-76, and the group of Klapdor-Kleingrothaus has made a claim of discovery. Future experiments have to reduce radioactive backgrounds to increase the sensitivity. The GERmanium Detector Array, GERDA [1], is a new DBD experiment which is currently being commissioned at the INFN Gran Sasso National Laboratory, Italy. It is implementing a new shielding concept by operating bare Ge diodes - enriched in Ge-76 - in high purity liquid argon supplemented by a water shield. The aim of GERDA is to verify or refute the recent claim of discovery, and, in a second phase, to achieve a two orders of magnitude lower background index than recent experiments. The paper will discuss the commissioning of GERDA and present first results from a technical run with a string of three natural Ge diodes. [1] http://www.mpi-hd.mpg.de/GERDA/