Related papers: The Large Enriched Germanium Experiment for Neutri…
We discuss up-to-date constraints on the Majorana neutrino mass $m_{\beta\beta}$ from neutrinoless double beta decay ($0\nu\beta\beta$) searches in experiments using different isotopes: KamLAND-Zen and EXO ($^{136}$Xe), GERDA and MAJORANA…
The International Germanium Experiment (IGEX) has analyzed 117 mole yr of 76Ge data from its isotopically enriched (86% 76Ge) germanium detectors. Applying pulse-shape discrimination (PSD) to the more recent data, the lower bound on the…
Neutrinoless double beta ($0\nu\beta\beta$) decay, an important low-energy process, serves not only as a potential test of the Majorana nature of neutrinos, but also as a sensitive probe for new physics beyond the Standard Model. In this…
Many extensions of the Standard Model of particle physics suggest that neutrinos should be Majorana-type fermions, but this assumption is difficult to confirm. Observation of neutrinoless double-beta decay ($0\nu \beta \beta$), a…
The predicted neutrinoless double-$\beta$ ($0\nu\beta\beta$) decay is the crucial phenomenon to prove the existence of the Majorana neutrino, which gives a foundation to leptogenesis to explain the matter prevalence of the universe. The…
The search for neutrinoless double beta decay and WIMP dark matter has a broad potential to test particle physics beyond the standard model. During the last years, the analysis of various contributions to the double beta decay rate by the…
Neutrinoless double beta decay ($0\nu\beta\beta$) is a crucial test for lepton number violation. Observation of this process would have fundamental implications for neutrino physics, theories beyond the Standard Model and cosmology.…
Nuclear double beta decay provides an extraordinarily broad potential to search for beyond Standard Model physics, probing already now the TeV scale, on which new physics should manifest itself. These possibilities are reviewed here. First,…
The GERDA experiment searches for neutrinoless double beta ($0\nu\beta\beta$) decay in $^{76}$Ge using an array of high purity germanium (HPGe) detectors immersed in liquid argon (LAr). Phase II of the experiment uses 30 new broad energy…
The Majorana Demonstrator is an ultra low-background experiment searching for neutrinoless double-beta decay in $^{76}$Ge. The heavily shielded array of germanium detectors, placed nearly a mile underground at the Sanford Underground…
Neutrinoless double beta decay is the most powerful tool to probe not only for Majorana neutrino masses but for lepton number violating physics in general. We discuss relations between lepton number violation, double beta decay and neutrino…
Neutrinoless double beta decay is a lepton-number violating process predicted by many extensions of the standard model. It is actively searched for in several candidate isotopes within many experimental projects. The status of the…
The $\nu_M{\rm SM}$ is defined as the SM extended to include dimension-5 operators. In this model neutrino masses violate lepton number, and two parameters of the lepton mixing matrix, the Majorana phases, are yet to be constrained. One…
The MAJORANA Collaboration is constructing the MAJORANA Demonstrator, an ultra-low background, 40-kg modular high purity Ge detector array to search for neutrinoless double-beta decay in Ge. In view of the next generation of tonne-scale…
The recent results from the HEIDELBERG-MOSCOW experiment have demonstrated the large potential of double beta decay to search for new physics beyond the Standard Model. To increase by a major step the present sensitivity for double beta…
While neutrino oscillation experiments have demonstrated that neutrinos have small, nonzero masses, much remains unknown about their properties and decay modes. One potential decay mode --- neutrinoless double beta decay ($0 \nu \beta…
The Neutrinoless double beta Decay allows to determine the effectice Majorana electron neutrino mass. For this the following conditions have to be satisfied: (i) The neutrino must be a Majorana particle, i. e. identical to the antiparticle.…
Neutrinoless double beta decay is one of the most powerful tools to set the neutrino mass absolute scale and establish whether the neutrino is a Majorana particle. After a summary of the neutrinoless double beta decay phenomenology, the…
The MAJORANA Collaboration is searching for the neutrinoless double-beta decay of the nucleus $^{76}$Ge. The MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR is an array of germanium detectors deployed with the aim of implementing background reduction techniques…
This paper presents a review of the search for neutrinoless double beta decay of $^{76}$Ge with emphasis on the recent results of the GERDA experiment. It includes an appraisal of fifty years of research on this topic as well as an outlook.