Status of the GERDA experiment aimed to search for neutrinoless double beta decay of 76Ge

TL;DR

The GERDA experiment is developing advanced germanium detectors in liquid argon to search for neutrinoless double beta decay of 76Ge, aiming to improve detection sensitivity and background suppression.

Contribution

This paper reports on the progress and new detector technologies of the GERDA experiment, including background suppression methods and phased detector deployment.

Findings

Utilization of enriched germanium detectors in liquid argon.

Implementation of detector segmentation and anti-coincidence techniques.

Progress towards more sensitive neutrinoless double beta decay searches.

Abstract

The progress in the development of the new international Gerda (GErmanium Detector Array) experiment is presented. Main purpose of the experiment is to search for the neutrinoless double beta decay of 76Ge. The experimental set up is under construction in the underground laboratory of LNGS. Gerda will operate with bare germanium semiconductor detectors (enriched in 76Ge) situated in liquid argon. In the Phase I the existing enriched detectors from the previous Heidelberg-Moscow and IGEX experiments are employed, in the Phase II the new segmented detectors made from recently produced enriched material will be added. Novel concepts for background suppression including detector segmentation and anti-coincidence with LAr scintillation are developed.