Title: The MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR 76Ge neutrinoless double beta decay experiment

Speaker: John F. Wilkerson (Professor, University of North Carolina and Oak Ridge National Laboratory)

Host: Dr. CAO Jun

Time: 10 AM, December 14, 2011

Place: Room C305, IHEP Main Building

Abstract:

The observation of neutrinoless double-beta decay would show that neutrinos are Majorana particles and provide information on the absolute scale of neutrino mass. Attaining sensitivities for neutrino masses in the inverted hierarchy region requires large, tonne scale detectors with extremely low backgrounds in the region of the signal. The MAJORANA collaboration is constructing the DEMONSTRATOR, an ultra-low background array consisting of 40 kg of p-type point contact germanium detectors, at least half of which will be enriched to 86% in 76Ge. The primary aim is to show the feasibility for a tonne scale measurement. With its low energy threshold, the array will also be able to search for light WIMP dark matter. Recent measurements from CoGeNT and MALBEK, a prototype detector for MAJORANA, will be discussed.

About the speaker:

John F. Wilkerson got his Ph.D. degree in 1977 from the University of North Carolina. From 2008 to present, he is the John R. and Louise S. Parker distinguished professor of physics in the University of North Carolina, at Chapel Hill. The research interests and current projects are neutrino physics & astrophysics, searches for rare processes, and precision tests of weak interactions; majorana neutrinoless double-beta decay (project director); KATRIN Direct Neutrino Mass Search; HALO (Helium and Lead Observatory) supernova neutrino detector.