Agostini, M;
Alexander, A;
Araujo, G;
Bakalyarov, AM;
Balata, M;
Barabanov, I;
Baudis, L;
... Zuzel, G; + view all
(2025)
Search for the in-situ production of ⁷⁷Ge in the GERDA neutrinoless double-beta decay experiment.
European Physical Journal C
, 85
(7)
, Article 809. 10.1140/epjc/s10052-025-14445-x.
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Abstract
The beta decay of 77Ge and 77mGe, both produced by neutron capture on 76Ge, is a potential background for Germanium based neutrinoless double-beta decay search experiments such as GERDA or the LEGEND experiment. In this work we present a search for 77Ge decays in the full GERDA Phase II data set. A delayed coincidence method was employed to identify the decay of 77Ge via the isomeric state of 77As (9/2+, 475 keV, T1/2 = 114µs, 77mAs). New digital signal processing methods were employed to select and analyze pile-up signals. No signal was observed, and an upper limit on the production rate of 77Ge was set at < 0.216 nuc/(kg· yr) (90% CL). This corresponds to a total production rate of 77Ge and 77mGe of < 0.38 nuc/(kg· yr) (90% CL), assuming equal production rates. A previous Monte Carlo study predicted a value for in-situ 77Ge and 77mGe production of (0.21 ± 0.07) nuc/(kg.yr), a prediction that is now further corroborated by our experimental limit. Moreover, tagging the isomeric state of 77mAs can be utilised to further suppress the 77Ge background. Considering the similar experimental configurations of LEGEND-1000 and GERDA, the cosmogenic background in LEGEND-1000 at LNGS is estimated to remain at a sub-dominant level.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Search for the in-situ production of ⁷⁷Ge in the GERDA neutrinoless double-beta decay experiment |
| Location: | France |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1140/epjc/s10052-025-14445-x |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-025-14445-x |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Physics and Astronomy |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10212436 |
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