Ge at the Ton Scale*

The discovery of the lepton-number-violating neutrinoless double-beta decay (0νββ) would determine the Majorana or Dirac nature of neutrinos, indicate the origin of neutrino mass, and provide a path to leptogenesis in the early universe. LEGEND-1000, the proposed the ton-scale phase of the LEGEND program, would search for the 0νββ of ⁷⁶Ge. LEGEND-1000 builds on the success of GERDA and the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR, which have achieved the lowest background levels and the best energy resolution in the region-of-interest in the field, and on the ongoing LEGEND-200 experiment. The LEGEND-1000 experiment's technical design, energy resolution, material selection, and background suppression techniques combine to project a background-free search for 0νββ at a half-life beyond 10²⁸ yrs and a discovery sensitivity that covers the inverted-ordering neutrino mass scale. LEGEND-1000’s technical readiness and discovery potential will be presented.