High sensitivity 2$\beta $ decay study of $^{116}$Cd and $^{100} $Mo with the BOREXINO counting test facility (CAMEO project)

G. Bellini; B. Caccianiga; M. Chen; F.A. Danevich; M.G. Giammarchi; V.V. Kobychev; B.N. Kropivyansky; E. Meroni; L. Miramonti; A.S. Nikolayko; L. Oberauer; O.A. Ponkratenko; V.I. Tretyak; S.Yu. Zdesenko; Yu.G. Zdesenko

doi:doi:10.1007/s100520100594

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2021 Impact factor 4.991

Particles and Fields

Eur. Phys. J. C 19, 43-55
DOI: 10.1007/s100520100594

High sensitivity 2 $\beta$ decay study of ¹¹⁶Cd and ¹⁰⁰Mo with the BOREXINO counting test facility (CAMEO project)

G. Bellini¹, B. Caccianiga¹, M. Chen², F.A. Danevich³, M.G. Giammarchi¹, V.V. Kobychev³, B.N. Kropivyansky³, E. Meroni¹, L. Miramonti¹, A.S. Nikolayko³, L. Oberauer⁴, O.A. Ponkratenko³, V.I. Tretyak³, S.Yu. Zdesenko³ and Yu.G. Zdesenko³

¹ Physics Department of the University and INFN, 20133 Milano, Italy
² Department of Physics, Queen's University, Kingston, Canada
³ Institute for Nuclear Research, MSP 03680 Kiev, Ukraine
⁴ Technical University Munich, Garching, Germany

(Received: 20 July 2000 / Revised version: 9 January 2001 / Published online: 23 February 2001 -© Springer-Verlag 2001)

Abstract
The unique features (super-low background and large sensitive volume) of the CTF and BOREXINO set ups are used in the CAMEO project for a high sensitivity study of ¹⁰⁰Mo and ¹¹⁶Cd neutrinoless 2 $\beta$ decay. Pilot measurements with ¹¹⁶Cd and Monte Carlo simulations show that the sensitivity of the CAMEO experiment (in terms of the half-life limit for $0\nu 2\beta$ decay) is $\approx$ 4 $\times$ 10²⁴ yr with a 1 kg source of ¹⁰⁰Mo and $\approx$ 10²⁶ yr with $\approx$ 100 kg of enriched ¹¹⁶CdWO₄ crystals placed in the liquid scintillator of the CTF. The last value corresponds to a limit on the neutrino mass of $m_\nu \leq 0.06$ eV. Similarly with 1000 kg of ¹¹⁶CdWO₄ crystals located in the BOREXINO apparatus the neutrino mass limit can be pushed down to $m_\nu \leq 0.02$ eV.