Limit on the radiative neutrinoless double electron capture of 36 Ar from GERDA Phase I

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • GERDA collaboration - (Author)
  • Chair of Nuclear Physics
  • National Institute for Nuclear Physics
  • Russian Research Centre Kurchatov Institute
  • RAS - Institute for Nuclear Research
  • TUD Dresden University of Technology
  • University of Pennsylvania
  • University of Zurich
  • Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics
  • University of Milan - Bicocca
  • Alikhanov Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics
  • University of Padua
  • Technical University of Munich
  • Jagiellonian University in Kraków
  • Joint Institute for Nuclear Research
  • Max Planck Institute for Physics (Werner Heisenberg Institute)
  • University of Tübingen
  • European Commission Joint Research Centre Institute
  • Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology

Abstract

Neutrinoless double electron capture is a process that, if detected, would give evidence of lepton number violation and the Majorana nature of neutrinos. A search for neutrinoless double electron capture of 36Ar has been performed with germanium detectors installed in liquid argon using data from Phase I of the GERmanium Detector Array (Gerda) experiment at the Gran Sasso Laboratory of INFN, Italy. No signal was observed and an experimental lower limit on the half-life of the radiative neutrinoless double electron capture of 36Ar was established: T1 / 2> 3.6 × 1021 years at 90% CI.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number652
JournalEuropean Physical Journal C
Volume76
Issue number12
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2016
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

ORCID /0000-0002-6705-7138/work/176344577