Abstract: Motivated by the search for neutrinoless double beta decay - the bizarre process wherein neutrinos are their own antiparticles - the high purity germanium detector technology has advanced as an increasingly sensitive platform. These experiments operate deep underground in the cleanest and most radio-pure environments, with exquisite discovery potential to rare event signals. In this talk, I will lay out the experimental programs using germanium detectors enriched in 76Ge, starting from the Majorana Demonstrator which is nearing the end of its science operations and continuing on with LEGEND which has just begun taking physics data. These experiments achieve the greatest sensitivity to the theoretical neutrinoless double beta decay process, illuminating the particle properties of neutrinos and impacting our understanding of the origin of the matter-antimatter asymmetry of the universe. I will also highlight the simultaneous sensitivity they provide to a range of known and proposed physics, from rare nuclear decays to dark matter.
The College of Arts