Next colloquium

Tuesday, 14 May at 3 pm

Andrew Laing

Double beta decay as a probe of the fundamental nature of the neutrino

The nature of the neutrino is one of the most intriguing areas of study in modern particle and astrophysics. From its humble origins as a massless cu- riosity proposed to save energy conservation in beta decays, the neutrino has consistently surprised and led to some of the most important experimental re- sults of the last decades. A particularly interesting prospect is that the neutrino could be a Majorana fermion, its own antiparticle. While a number of possi- ble experimental methods have been proposed, the most sensitive experimental method to probe this possibility is that of neutrino-less double beta decay where two neutrons in a nucleus decay simultaneously without the emission of antineu- trinos. In this talk, I will review the field of double beta decay searches with special focus on the experimental techniques employed to reduce backgrounds from natural radiation sources. I will also discuss future prospects for virtually background-less experiments and the impact of an observation.

Colloquia 2018/19

2018

2019