Abstract
The GERDA experiment searches for the neutrinoless double beta decay of 76Ge. The experiment is using 36 kg of high-purity germanium detectors, simultaneously as source and detector, deployed into ultra-pure cryogenic liquid argon. GERDA is one the leading experiment in the field, reporting the highest sensitivity on the half-life of 0νββ decay with 1.1·1026 yr, the lowest background index with 6·10−4 cts/(keV·kg·yr) and an excellent energy resolution of 0.12% (FWHM). The search for the 0νββ decay of the isotope 76Ge will be continued in the next years by the LEGEND-200 experiment, that aims to reach a sensitivity up to 1027 yr using 200 kg of enriched HPGe detectors. The preparation of this experiment already started. The basic concepts of the GERDA read-out electronics, obeying both the severe requirements of ultra high radio-purity and cryogenic operation, are summarized. For LEGEND-200 a new electronics design, including a separation of the preamplifier in two stages, has been already designed and realized: results from tests are presented. Additionally, we will introduce the digital signal processing adopted for the energy reconstruction in GERDA and a new implementation of an optimum digital filter by means of the DPLMS method. This method are discussed and the first application to GERDA data are presented.
Highlights
The basic concepts of the GErmanium Detector Array (GERDA) read-out electronics, obeying both the severe requirements of ultra high radio-purity and cryogenic operation, are summarized
The GErmanium Detector Array (GERDA) experiment [1] is searching for neutrinoless double beta (0⌫ββ) decay of the isotope 76Ge
High-Purity Germanium (HPGe) detectors enriched to about 87% in 76Ge are operated bare in liquid argon (LAr), being both source and detector of 0⌫ββ decay
Summary
The GErmanium Detector Array (GERDA) experiment [1] is searching for neutrinoless double beta (0⌫ββ) decay of the isotope 76Ge. The core of the GERDA setup is shown in Fig. 2: the Ge detector array (30 BEGe, 7 enriched coaxial and 3 natural coaxial detectors) is at the center of the instrumented LAr volume. Initial results from the second phase, with about 10 kg·yr exposure, indicate that the target background of 10−3 cts/(keV·kg·yr) is achieved, making GERDA the first experiment in the field which will be “background-free” up to the design exposure of 100 kg·yr [6]. This condition has been confirmed in the following data release [7]. The probability to obtain a limit stronger than the actual one in an ensemble of repeated experiments with null signal is 63%
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