https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-019-7279-1
Regular Article - Experimental Physics
First results from the AMoRE-Pilot neutrinoless double beta decay experiment
1
Center for Underground Physics, Institute of Basic Science (IBS), Daejeon, 34126, Republic of Korea
2
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Seoul National University, Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea
3
Korea Research Institute for Standard Science, Daejeon, 34113, Republic of Korea
4
JSC FOMOS-Materials, Moscow, 107023, Russia
5
Department of Physics, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, 41566, Republic of Korea
6
Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Abbestr. 2-12, 10587, Berlin, Germany
7
Institute for Nuclear Research, Kyiv, 03028, Ukraine
8
Nakhon Pathom Rajabhat University, Nakhon Pathom, 73000, Thailand
9
Department of Physics, Soongsil University, Seoul, 06978, Republic of Korea
10
Department of Physics, Bandung Institute of Technology, Bandung, 40132, Indonesia
11
Kirchhoff-Institute for Physics, Heidelberg University, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany
12
Baksan Neutrino Observatory of INR RAS, Kabardino-Balkaria, 361609, Russia
13
V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, Kharkiv, 61022, Ukraine
14
Nikolaev Institute of Inorganic Chemistry, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia
15
Novosibirsk State Tech Univ, 20 Karl Marx Prospect, Novosibirsk, 630092, Russia
16
Ewha Womans University, Seoul, 03760, Republic of Korea
17
Department of Physics, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, 06911, Republic of Korea
18
Semyung University, Jecheon, 27136, Republic of Korea
19
Department of Physics, Kohat University of Science and Technology, Kohat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 26000, Pakistan
20
Department of Physics, Sejong University, Seoul, 05006, Republic of Korea
21
Department of Accelerator Science, Korea University, Sejong, 30019, Republic of Korea
22
University of Science and Technology, Daejeon, 34113, Republic of Korea
23
National Research Nuclear University MEPhI, Moscow, 115409, Russia
24
Tsinghua University, 100084, Beijing, China
25
Department of Physics, Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan, 23200, Pakistan
26
University of Mataram, Mataram, Nusa Tenggara Bar., 83121, Indonesia
27
Present address: Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 87545, USA
28
Present address: Max-Planck-Institut für Physik, 80805, Munich, Germany
* e-mail: yhk@ibs.re.kr
Received:
25
March
2019
Accepted:
4
September
2019
Published online:
24
September
2019
The advanced molybdenum-based rare process experiment (AMoRE) aims to search for neutrinoless double beta decay (
) of 
Mo with 
of Mo-enriched molybdenum embedded in cryogenic detectors with a dual heat and light readout. At the current, pilot stage of the AMoRE project we employ six calcium molybdate crystals with a total mass of 1.9 kg, produced from 
Ca-depleted calcium and Mo-enriched molybdenum (
). The simultaneous detection of heat (phonon) and scintillation (photon) signals is realized with high resolution metallic magnetic calorimeter sensors that operate at milli-Kelvin temperatures. This stage of the project is carried out in the Yangyang underground laboratory at a depth of 700 m. We report first results from the AMoRE-Pilot search with a 111 kg day live exposure of crystals. No evidence for decay of Mo is found, and a upper limit is set for the half-life of of Mo of 
at 90% C.L. This limit corresponds to an effective Majorana neutrino mass limit in the range 
.
© The Author(s), 2019
