Towards a background-free double-beta decay experiment using the EDELWEISS cryogenic Ge detectors

✍ Scribed by Chardin, G.; Broniatowski, A.; Deschamps, H.; Jin, Y.; Fesquet, M.

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 170 KB
• Volume: 520
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0168-9002
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nima.2003.11.278

✦ Synopsis

The present generation of double-beta experiments is limited by two main backgrounds: surface alpha interactions and Compton interactions from high-energy gamma-ray lines. Using the detector developments realized for the EDELWEISS Dark Matter experiment, we propose a strategy to eliminate completely the alpha radioactivity background and to reduce by nearly two orders of magnitude the Compton background. This would lead to a nearly background-free experiment, and an effective neutrino mass sensitivity of 15 meV achieved in 5 years with a one-ton array of ionisation-heat 76 Ge detectors.