The Majorana Demonstrator: A Search for Neutrinoless Double-beta Decay of 76Ge

Understand

Neutrinoless double-beta decay is a hypothesized process where in some even-even nuclei it might be possible for two neutrons to simultaneously decay into two protons and two electrons without emitting neutrinos.

• This is possible only if neutrinos are Majorana particles, i.e.
• fermions that are their own antiparticles.
• Neutrinos being Majorana particles would explicitly violate lepton number conservation, and might play a role in the matter-antimatter asymmetry in the universe.