MAJORANA

The project builds upon the work of previous experiments, notably those performed by the Heidelberg–Moscow[1] and IGEX[2] collaborations, which used high-purity germanium (HPGe) detectors, to study neutrinoless double-beta decay.

[5] If low enough electronic noise is achieved the Demonstrator may also make a search for WIMPs and axions.

This results from the weighting potential being strongly peaked close to the small electrode, meaning that as charge drifts towards the electrode there is a high probability of seeing distinct signals from each energy deposition, thus being able to reject events these signals.

At Dec 2014 the Majorana Demonstrator was under construction at the Sanford Underground Laboratory in Lead, South Dakota.

[8] MALBEK was operated 2011–12 at KURF (Kimballton Underground Research Facility) in Virginia as a WIMP detector to evaluate the broad energy (BEGe) PPCs.

[10] On 3 March 2021, the Majorana Demonstrator stopped operation with enriched germanium detectors, in preparation for the LEGEND experiment.

The enriched germanium detectors operated since June 2015 at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota.