Special Seminar: "Germanium detectors in the search for neutrinoless double beta decay" by Anna Julia Zsigmond (Max-Planck-Institut für Physik)

Thursday 23 Jan 2020, 14:00 → 15:00 Europe/Amsterdam

H331 (Nikhef)

The observation of neutrinoless double beta decay would establish both the violation of lepton number conservation and the Majorana nature of the neutrino. The GERDA and MAJORANA experiments are searching for this hypothetical decay with germanium detectors enriched in the double-beta decaying isotope Ge-76. Building on their success in reaching background-free conditions and excellent energy resolution, the LEGEND experiment is planned to continue this search in a staged approach. Passive as well as active background reduction techniques are essential in such rare event searches and I will focus on one of these techniques, namely pulse shape discrimination using the signals coming from the Ge detectors. In order to understand and distinguish the signal shape from different background sources, simulations and test measurements are performed. I will introduce the related concepts and some new developments for LEGEND.