Related papers: MAJORANA Collaboration's Experience with Germanium…
The GERmanium Detector Array (GERDA) experiment searched for the lepton-number-violating neutrinoless double-$\beta$ ($0\nu\beta\beta$) decay of $^{76}$Ge, whose discovery would have far-reaching implications in cosmology and particle…
A discovery that neutrinos are not the usual Dirac but Majorana fermions, i.e. identical to their antiparticles, would be a manifestation of new physics with profound implications for particle physics and cosmology. Majorana neutrinos would…
Germanium detectors have very good capabilities for the investigation of rare phenomena like the neutrinoless double beta decay. Rejection of the background entangling the expected signal is one primary goal in this kind of experiments.…
Experiments searching for rare processes like neutrinoless double beta decay heavily rely on the identification of background events to reduce their background level and increase their sensitivity. We present a novel machine learning based…
A new technique of elucidating $\beta$-decay schemes of isotopes with large density of states at low excitation energies has been developed, in which a Broad Energy Germanium (BEGe) detector is used in conjunction with coaxial hyper-pure…
The Majorana Demonstrator is currently searching for neutrinoless double-beta decay in $^{76}$Ge and will demonstrate the feasibility to deploy a tonne-scale experiment in a phased and modular fashion. It consists of two modular arrays of…
A search for neutrinoless $\beta\beta$ decay processes accompanied with Majoron emission has been performed using data collected during Phase I of the GERmanium Detector Array (GERDA) experiment at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso of…
A new design of a cryogenic germanium detector for dark matter search is presented, taking advantage of the coplanar grid technique of event localisation for improved background discrimination. Experiments performed with prototype devices…
The use of High Purity Germanium detectors operated in ionization mode at cryogenic temperatures is investigated as an external background mitigation solution for bolometers used in rare-event search experiments. A simple experimental setup…
The Standard Model of particle physics cannot explain the dominance of matter over anti-matter in our Universe. In many model extensions this is a very natural consequence of neutrinos being their own anti-particles (Majorana particles)…
The {\sc Majorana Demonstrator will search for the neutrinoless double-beta decay of the isotope Ge-76 with a mixed array of enriched and natural germanium detectors. The observation of this rare decay would indicate the neutrino is its own…
The Gas Amplifier Detector with Germanium Tagging (GADGET) is a new detection system devoted to the measurement of weak, low-energy $\beta$-delayed proton decays relevant for nuclear astrophysics studies. It is comprised of a new gaseous…
Large, high-purity, germanium (HPGe) detectors are needed for neutrinoless double-beta decay and dark matter experiments. Currently, large (> 4 inches in diameter) HPGe crystals can be grown at the University of South Dakota (USD). We…
A brief review of the history and neutrino physics of double beta decay is given. A description of the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR research and development program including background reduction techniques is presented in some detail. The…
UCGretina, a GEANT4 simulation of the GRETINA gamma-ray tracking array of highly-segmented high-purity germanium detectors is described. We have developed a model of the array, in particular of the Quad Module and the capsules, that gives…
Experiments built to search for neutrinoless double beta-decay are limited in their sensitivity not only by the exposure but also by the amount of background encountered. Radioactive isotopes in the surrounding of the detectors which emit…
This article reports the characterization of two High Purity Germanium detectors performed by extracting and comparing their efficiencies using experimental data and Monte Carlo simulations. The efficiencies were calculated for pointlike…
The {\sc Majorana} Project, a neutrinoless double-beta decay experiment is described with an emphasis on the choice of Ge-detector configuration.
The \MJ\ Collaboration is operating an array of high purity Ge detectors to search for neutrinoless double-beta decay in $^{76}$Ge. The \MJ\ \DEM\ comprises 44.1~kg of Ge detectors (29.7 kg enriched in $^{76}$Ge) split between two modules…
High-purity germanium detectors are widely used in rare-event searches due to their excellent energy resolution and extremely high intrinsic (radio)purity. In experiments searching for neutrinoless double beta decay in $^{76}$Ge such as…