Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

In Situ Cosmogenic Backgrounds In The Majorana Demonstrator, Andrew Lopez

Doctoral Dissertations

Neutrino-less double-beta decay is a proposed type of radioactive decay that, if observed, could answer several outstanding physics questions, such as "Is the neutrino its own antiparticle otherwise known as a Majorana particle?", "What is the mass of the neutrino?", and "What is the neutrino mass hierarchy?" As technology and experimental techniques improve, the sensitivity of experiments looking for rare events becomes more dependent on the backgrounds. Some of these backgrounds can be reduced using shielding techniques such as implementing a veto system, selecting radiopure components, and conducting the experiment deep underground. However some amount of cosmogenically induced backgrounds remain …