WIDG Seminar: Ako Jamil, Yale University, “The Search for Majorana Neutrinos with nEXO”

Event time: 
Tuesday, October 16, 2018 - 12:00pm to 1:00pm
Location: 
Wright Lab - Connector (EAL), WLC-245 See map
270 Whitney Avenue
New Haven, CT 06511
Event description: 

The discovery of 0vbb has profound implications for the Standard Model, as it would proof the existence of a new type of particle, Majorana fermions, and show that lepton number conservation is violated. Moreover, it provides hints for more beyond the Standard Model physics, possibly allowing for a different mass generation mechanics (other than Higgs) and the introduction of GUT-scale heavy, right-handed neutrinos.

nEXO is a 5 tonne LXe TPC planned to search for the neutrinoless double beta decay of Xe-136 with a target half-life sensitivity of approximately 10^28 years, which is achievable through careful material selection, an improved design of the TPC and a multi-dimensional analysis and event reconstruction. MC simulations derive a sensitivity to the effective Majorana neutrino mass between 5.7 and 17.7 meV on a 90% C.L. depending on the nuclear matrix element calculation after 10 years of live time.