Double-beta decay: Recent advances in experimental studies

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Abstract
The current situation in experiments studying double-beta decay is surveyed. The amount of experimental information about the two-neutrino mode of the process has grown considerably over the last decade. The two-neutrino double-beta decay of ten nuclei (48Ca, 76Ge, 82Se, 96Zr, 100Mo, 116Cd, 128Te, 130Te, 150Nd, and 238U) was observed in direct and geochemical experiments. However, the main fundamental question—that of neutrinoless double-beta decay, which has not yet been recorded, although the sensitivity of present-day facilities featuring germanium detectors is higher than 1025 yr—remains open. The constraint on the effective Majorana mass on the basis of these results is 〈m v〉<(0.4–1.1) eV. Further advancements in searches for neutrinoless double-beta decays must rely on developing fundamentally new experimental facilities, since the potential of those that already exist has been exhausted to a considerable extent.

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