Abstract
A search for Pauli-exclusion-principle-violating Kα electron transitions was performed using 89.5 kg-d of data collected with a p-type point contact high-purity germanium detector operated at the Kimballton Underground Research Facility. A lower limit on the transition lifetime of 5.8 × 10 30 s at 90% C.L. was set by looking for a peak at 10.6 keV resulting from the X-ray and Auger electrons present following the transition. A similar analysis was done to look for the decay of atomic K-shell electrons into neutrinos, resulting in a lower limit of 6.8 × 10 30 s at 90% C.L. It is estimated that the Majorana Demonstrator, a 44 kg array of p-type point contact detectors that will search for the neutrinoless double-beta decay of 76Ge, could improve upon these exclusion limits by an order of magnitude after three years of operation.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 619 |
| Journal | European Physical Journal C |
| Volume | 76 |
| Issue number | 11 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Nov 1 2016 |
Funding
This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Nuclear Physics under Award Numbers DE-AC02-05CH11231, DE-AC52-06NA25396, DE-FG02-97ER41041, DE-FG02-97ER41033, DE-FG02-97ER41042, DE-SC0012612, DE-FG02-10ER41715, DE-SC0010254, and DE-FG02-97ER41020. We acknowledge support from the Particle Astrophysics Program and Nuclear Physics Program of the National Science Foundation through Grant Numbers PHY-0919270, PHY-1003940, 0855314, PHY-1202950, MRI 0923142 and 1003399; the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, Grant No. 15-02-02919; and the U.S. Department of Energy through the LANL/LDRD Program. We thank our hosts and colleagues at the Kimballton Underground Research Facility, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, and the Triangle University Nuclear Laboratories for their support and assistance with remote detector operations.