Background model for the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR

Abstract

The MAJORANA Collaboration is constructing a system containing 44 kg of high-purity Ge (HPGe) detectors to demonstrate the feasibility and potential of a future tonne-scale experiment capable of probing the neutrino mass scale to ~15 meV. To realize this, a major goal of the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR is to demonstrate a path forward to achieving a background rate at or below 1 count/(ROI-t-y) in the 4 keV region of interest (ROI) around the Q-value at 2039 keV. This goal is pursued through a combination of a significant reduction of radioactive impurities in construction materials and analytical methods for background rejection, for example using powerful pulse shape analysis techniques profiting from the p-type point contact HPGe detectors technology. The effectiveness of these methods is assessed using simulations of the different background components whose purity levels are constrained from radioassay measurements. Preliminary background results obtained during the engineering runs of the Demonstrator are presented.

arXiv comment3 pages, 3 figures

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Cited by in corpus (6)

• Search for Zero-Neutrino Double Beta Decay in 76Ge with the Majorana Demonstrator
• A neutrinoless double beta decay master formula from effective field theory
• Deep learning based pulse shape discrimination for germanium detectors
• Pulse shape discrimination performance of Inverted Coaxial Ge detectors
• Investigation of ASIC-based signal readout electronics for LEGEND-1000
• Recent Results from the Majorana Demonstrator