Elucidating the nature of neutrinos: the state-of-the art in searches for neutrinoless double beta decay

  • Sept. 16, 2020, 12:00 pm US/Central
  • Laura Baudis
  • Patrick Fox
  • Video

Fermilab employees and users can access the Zoom link below (Services login required):

https://fermipoint.fnal.gov/org/ood/LabLeadership/Shared%20Documents/Zoom%20link%20for%20colloquium.docx?d=wddecabdd5efe44ee91ba775647366a0a&csf=1&e=XzG3Ib

Please note: you will need the passcode to enter the zoom

Anyone else can obtain the Zoom link the day of the colloquium by emailing Barb Kronkow at kronkow@fnal.gov

Neutrinos are the only known elementary particles that are Majorana fermion candidates, implying that they would be their own antiparticles. The most sensitive and perhaps only practical probe of the Majorana nature of neutrinos is an extremely rare nuclear decay process, the double beta decay without the emission of neutrinos. After an introduction to the physics of neutrinoless double beta decay, I will present the experimental techniques to search for this exceedingly rare process. I will show the latest results from leading experiments in the field, then discuss future projects and their prospects to probe the inverted neutrino mass ordering scenario.