Speaker
Description
he observation of neutrinoless double beta ($0\nu\beta\beta$) decay would establish the Majorana nature of neutrinos and explicitly show that lepton number conservation is violated. In their search for the rare decay in the isotope $^{76}$Ge, the {\sc Gerda} and {\sc Majorana Demonstrator} (MJD) experiments have achieved the lowest backgrounds and the best energy resolution in the signal region of interest of any $0\nu\beta\beta$ decay experiment. Building on the successful results of these experiments, the Large Enriched Germanium Experiment for Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay (LEGEND) Collaboration aims to develop a phased $0\nu\beta\beta$ decay experimental program with the discovery potential at a half-life beyond $10^{28}$ years. To achieve this goal, the enriched Ge detector mass has to be increased up to the tonne-scale and the backgrounds have to be reduced further. The first phase of LEGEND, a 200\,kg measurement utilizing the existing {\sc Gerda} infrastructure at LNGS in Italy, is expected to start in 2021. This talk will give an overview of LEGEND and discuss its envisioned first phase LEGEND-200. In particular, the plans and physics reach of LEGEND together with the various ongoing R&D efforts will be presented.
