Germanium Detector Array, GERDA

The GERmanium Detector Array, GERDA, is designed to search for 'neutrinoless double beta decay' (0v2ß) in 76Ge. The high-purity segmented Ge detectors will be directly submerged and operated in liquid N2 or Ar. The measurement of the half-life time of 0v2ß decay will provide information about the absolute neutrino mass scale and indirectly, the hierarchy. The design goal of GERDA is to reach a sensitivity of 0.2 eV on the effective Majorana neutrino mass (mßß). The GERDA experiment is located in hall A of the Grand Sasso national lab (LNGS) and the construction will start in 2006.JRC.D.4-Isotope measurement

The GERDA Neutrinoless Double Beta-Decay Experiment

Neutrinoless double beta-decay is the key process to gain understanding of the nature of neutrinos. The GErmanium Detector Array (GERDA) is designed to search for this decay of the isotope Ge-76. Germanium crystals enriched in Ge-76, acting as source and detector simultaneously, will be submerged directly into an ultra pure cooling medium that also serves as a radiation shield. This concept will allow for a reduction of the background by up to two orders of magnitudes with respect to earlier experiments.JRC.D.4-Isotope measurement

Separating 39Ar{^{39}\hbox {Ar}} from 40Ar{^{40}\hbox {Ar}} by cryogenic distillation with Aria for dark-matter searches

International audienceAria is a plant hosting a ${350}\,\hbox {m}$ cryogenic isotopic distillation column, the tallest ever built, which is being installed in a mine shaft at Carbosulcis S.p.A., Nuraxi-Figus (SU), Italy. Aria is one of the pillars of the argon dark-matter search experimental program, lead by the Global Argon Dark Matter Collaboration. It was designed to reduce the isotopic abundance of ${^{39}\hbox {Ar}}$ in argon extracted from underground sources, called Underground Argon (UAr), which is used for dark-matter searches. Indeed, ${^{39}\hbox {Ar}}$ is a $\beta$-emitter of cosmogenic origin, whose activity poses background and pile-up concerns in the detectors. In this paper, we discuss the requirements, design, construction, tests, and projected performance of the plant for the isotopic cryogenic distillation of argon. We also present the successful results of the isotopic cryogenic distillation of nitrogen with a prototype plant

The effect of highly ionising particles on the CMS silicon strip tracker

Inelastic nuclear collisions of hadrons incident on silicon sensors can generate secondary highly ionising particles (HIPs) and deposit as much energy within the sensor bulk as several hundred minimum ionising particles. The large signals generated by these \u27HIP events\u27 can momentarily saturate the APV25 front-end readout chip for the silicon strip tracker (SST) sub-detector of the compact muon solenoid (CMS) experiment, resulting in deadtime in the detector readout system. This paper presents studies of this phenomenon through simulation, laboratory measurements and dedicated beam tests. A proposed change to a front-end component to reduce the APV25 sensitivity to HIP events is also examined. The results are used to infer the expected effect on the performance of the CMS SST at the future large hadron collider. The induced inefficiencies are at the percent level and will have a negligible effect on the physics performance of the SST. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved