Seminars

T. O'Donnell - Recent Results from KamLAND and KamLAND-Zen

by Thomas O'Donnell (University of California Berkeley (UCB) & Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL))

Europe/Rome
Pontecorvo room (LNGS)

Pontecorvo room

LNGS

Description
The KamLAND-Zen experiment is a new application of the Kam-LAND detector running in parallel with the ongoing antineutrino program at KamLAND. While KamLAND studies mainly reactor and geo-neutrinos, KamLAND-Zen searches for neutrinoless double beta (0νββ) decay of 136Xe using a target of Xe-loaded liquid scintillator placed at the center of KamLAND. KamLAND-Zen recently completed its first phase of running, yielding a lower limit for the 0νββ decay half-life of 136Xe:T1/2>1.9×1025 yr at 90% C.L. Combining limits from KamLAND-Zen and EXO-200 gives: T1/2>3.4 ×1025 yr at 90% C.L. Based on available nuclear matrix element calculations, this result is in tension with the neutrinoless double-beta decay detection claim in 76Ge reported by a part of the Heidelberg-Moscow collaboration. In this talk I will describe the KamLAND/KamLAND-Zen experiments, the 0νββ results, as well results from the latest antineutrino dataset at KamLAND which includes the recent protracted shutdown of Japanese nuclear reactors.

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Thomas O'Donnell
University of California Berkeley (UCB)
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL)



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