Double beta decay experiments: status and prospects

by Fedor Danevich (Institute for Nuclear Research, Kyiv, Ukraine)

Monday 6 Jun 2016, 14:00 → 16:00 Europe/Rome

Aula Conversi (Dip. di Fisica - Edificio G. Marconi)

Double beta decay experiments are considered as a unique way to study properties of neutrino and weak interactions. The two neutrino double beta decay is detected in 11 nuclei with the half-lives on the level of 1E19 - 1E24 yr. E.g., the most accurate measurement of the 116Cd half-life was realized in the Gran Sasso Lab with enriched in 116Cd cadmium tungstate scintillators. The experiment also gives one of the most stringent limits on the neutrinoless mode of decay. Cadmium tungstate scintillator from enriched 106Cd allows high sensitivity search for double beta decay of 106Cd. Recently high quality zinc and lithium molybdate scintillators were produced from enriched 100Mo to search for double beta decay of 100Mo. Low background germanium detectors are used to study double beta decay to excited levels of daughter nuclei and double beta plus processes, including resonant neutrinoless double electron captures. These resu! lts pave the way to explore the inverted hierarchy of the neutrino mass.