arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to NEMO Collaboration.
In the double beta decay experiment NEMO~3 a precise knowledge of the background in the signal region is of outstanding importance. This article presents the methods used in NEMO~3 to evaluate the backgrounds resulting from most if not all possible origins. It also illustrates the power of the combined tracking-calorimetry technique used in the experiment.
The NEMO collaboration is presently mounting the NEMO-3 detector in the Fréjus Underground Laboratory. This detector, which will be completed by the end of the year 2000, is devoted to the search of neutrinoless double beta decay with various isotopes. Much attention has been focused on ^{100}Mo and ^{82}Se with their large Q_{ββ}-values. The detector is based on the direct detection of the two electrons by a tracking device and on the measurement of their energies by a calorimeter. The aim of the experiment is to have a sensitivity for the effective neutrino mass on the order of 0.1 eV. The status and the expected performance of the NEMO-3 detector for both internal and external background rejections and for signal detection are presented.