January 9, 2008
3pm in Howey Physics Lecture Room 5

 

Frank Avignone
Carolina Endowed Professor of Physics and Astronomy
University of South Carolina

 

"Search for Lepton-Number Violation and Neutrino Mass with Nuclear Double-Beta Decay"

Neutrinos are the most prolific particle in the universe, yet we still don't yet know their masses, or their relationship to their anti-particles. There has, however, been a surge of new information on neutrino properties starting with the discovery of the oscillation of atmospheric neutrinos by the Super-Kamiokande experiment in 1998. Since then, the results from the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) experiment have confirmed the observation of solar-neutrino oscillations by Davis' Cl experiment, as well as the SAGE and GALEX Ga experiments in Russia and Italy, respectively. However, neutrino oscillation experiments only yield neutrino mixing angles and the squares of the differences of the mass eigenstates, but not the absolute values of the neutrino masses. Nuclear double-beta decay, should it occur without the emission of neutrinos (neutrinoless double beta decay) would be the most sensitive probe of the neutrino-mass scale. In this talk, CUORE and Majorana, two experiments in which US institutions are heavily involved, will be discussed in some detail. The theoretical issues will be discussed; however, the emphasis will be on the experimental principals as well as the status double beta decay experiments, and in particular of these experiments.