Bulletin of the American Physical Society
2012 Fall Meeting of the APS Division of Nuclear Physics
Volume 57, Number 9
Wednesday–Saturday, October 24–27, 2012; Newport Beach, California
Session HE: Double Beta Decay and LUX |
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Chair: Eric Norman, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Room: Garden I |
Friday, October 26, 2012 8:30AM - 8:42AM |
HE.00001: Results from EXO-200 Clayton Davis The EXO-200 (Enriched Xenon Observatory -- 200 kg) experiment has recently placed new limits on the bb0$\nu$-mode half-life of xenon-136, with T$_{1/2}$ > 1.6 x 10$^{25}$ years. This corresponds to an effective Majorana mass of less than 140-380 meV (depending on the matrix element calculations), which compares favorably to limits placed by other Germanium-based experiments. I will give an overview of this recent result from EXO-200. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, October 26, 2012 8:42AM - 8:54AM |
HE.00002: Cosmogenic activation in the neutrinoless double-beta decay experiment CUORE Barbara Wang, Eric Norman, Nicholas Scielzo, Alan Smith, Keenan Thomas The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) will search for the neutrinoless double-beta (0$\nu \beta \beta )$ decay of $^{130}$Te using an array of 988 high-resolution bolometers. Each bolometer, comprised of a TeO$_{2}$ crystal and a thermal sensor, serves as both a source and a detector. Observation of 0$\nu \beta \beta $ decay requires that all backgrounds be identified and understood. One source of background that is poorly characterized is cosmogenic neutron activation of the TeO$_{2}$ crystals. This process, which produces long-lived radioisotopes that can obscure the 0$\nu \beta \beta $ decay signal, occurs while the crystals are transported by ship from their production site in China to the detector site in Italy. Cross-section measurements in which TeO$_{2}$ targets are irradiated with a spectrum mimicking that of cosmic-ray neutrons were carried out at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center. The resulting cross-sections have been used in a Monte Carlo simulation to estimate the cosmogenic background that will be present in CUORE. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, October 26, 2012 8:54AM - 9:06AM |
HE.00003: Neutron-Induced Reactions on Copper and Zero-Neutrino Double-Beta Decay Searches Matthew Gooden, John Kelley, Brent Fallin, Sean Finch, Calvin Howell, Gencho Rusev, Anton Tonchev, Werner Tornow Cross-section measurements of (n,x$\gamma )$ reactions on $^{nat}$Cu were carried out at TUNL using monoenergetic neutrons at six energies of E$_{n}$ = 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 MeV. These studies were performed to provide accurate cross-section data on materials abundant in experimental setups involving HPGe detectors used to search for rare events, like the neutrino-less double-beta decay of $^{76}$Ge. Spallation and ($\alpha $,n) neutrons are expected to cause the largest source of external background in the energy region of interest. At TUNL pulsed neutron beams were produced via the $^{2}$H(d,n)$^{3}$He reaction and the deexcitation $\gamma $ rays from the reaction $^{nat}$Cu(n,x$\gamma )$ were detected with clover HPGe detectors. Our cross-section data will be compared to theoretical calculations and to data recently obtained at LANL with a white neutron beam. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, October 26, 2012 9:06AM - 9:18AM |
HE.00004: Novel Shell Model Analysis of the Double Beta Decay Matrix Elements for 136Xe Mihai Horoi Recent experimental results of two-neutrino [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 212501 (2011), Phys. Rev. C 85, 045504 (2012)] and neutrinoless double beta decays [arXiv:1205.5608,1205.6372] of 136Xe indicate an improved limit of the effective neutrino mass in the standard scenario of exchange of left-handed massive Majorana neutrinos. I will present a novel shell model analysis of the double beta decay matrix elements in an extended shell model space in which the Ikeda sum-rule is satisfied. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, October 26, 2012 9:18AM - 9:30AM |
HE.00005: Scattering of light from the liquid scintillator used in SNO+ Timothy Major SNO+ is a double-beta decay experiment currently under construction in Sudbury, Ontario. It will contain approximately a kiloton of liquid scintillator loaded with a neodymium isotope that it is thought may undergo neutrinoless double-beta decay. To simulate events and to interpret data, it is important to understand how light scatters in the liquid scintillator, including the angular distribution of scattered photons. This talk will highlight the status of SNO+ and discuss a measurement of the distribution of scattered light from a sample of liquid scintillator. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, October 26, 2012 9:30AM - 9:42AM |
HE.00006: P-Type Point Contact Germanium Detectors and Their Implementation for the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR Experiment Ryan Martin The {\sc Majorana Demonstrator} will perform a search for the neutrinoless double-beta decay of $^{76}$Ge using p-type point contact (PPC) high-purity germanium detectors. These detectors provide several advantages over conventional germanium detectors, such as the ability to identify backgrounds from gamma rays scattering multiple times and the potential to be operated with a very low level of electronic noise. This talk will give an overview of these detectors, some of their characteristics as well as the electronics design that has been chosen for operating them in the {\sc Majorana Demonstrator}. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, October 26, 2012 9:42AM - 9:54AM |
HE.00007: The LUX Experiment Patrick Phelps LUX, the Large Underground Xenon experiment, is a 300 kg xenon TPC, designed to directly detect elastic scattering of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), located in the Davis Cavern at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota. LUX has just successfully completed its surface run program and has begun underground deployment to begin its science run in late 2012. In this talk I will review the LUX detector, summarize the currently completed surface commissioning phase, and discuss deployment status and science goals for underground operations. [Preview Abstract] |
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