Description:

Neutrinoless double beta decay (0nbb) is a hypothetical process, which is expected to occur if neutrinos are Majorana particles. While many phenomenologists favor the Majorana theory for neutrinos for its elegant solution to the neutrino mass scale and the potential to explain the matter-antimatter asymmetry of the Universe, the decay process has not been observed yet. In this seminar, I will discuss the motivation for the currently ongoing searches, before focusing on cryogenic bolometric techniques that can obtain a half-life sensitivity of more than 1025 years. I will discuss the design, optimization and recent results of the CUORE (Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events) 0nbb-search with 130Te. In addition, I will put a particular focus on the current effort to upgrade the detection technology of CUORE in CUPID (CUORE Upgrade with Particle ID) which plans to reuse this most massive cryogenic infrastructure of its kind. With a half-life sensitivity of 1027 years, CUPID is expected to start to explore 0nbb-decay in the so-called inverted mass hierarchy region with 100Mo in the present decade. The detector technology for CUPID is in an advanced state with 20 prototype detectors operated in the CUPID-Mo demonstrator at the Laboratoire Souterrain de Modane. I will present results from the CUPID-Mo data taking in 2019, as well as topics of further investigation to improve the sensitivity of CUPID. I will conclude with a glance at the prospects of the next generation of cryogenic and further 0nbb searches.

Seminar Speaker: Benjamin Schmidt, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Meeting Details:
Monday, May 4, 2020 at 4:00pm (Central Time)

Zoom info:
Please email yassaman.shemirani@northwestern.edu to get the Zoom meeting link. 

Keywords: Physics, Astronomy, HEP