We comment on the recent claim for the experimental observation of neutrinoless doublebeta decay. We discuss several limitations in the analysis provided in that paper and conclude that there is no basis for the presented claim.
The proposed Majorana double-beta decay experiment is based on an array of segmented intrinsic Ge detectors with a total mass of 500 kg of Ge isotopically enriched to 86% in 76 Ge. A discussion is given of background reduction by: material selection, detector segmentation, pulse shape analysis, and electro-formation of copper parts and granularity. Predictions of the experimental sensitivity are given. For an experimental running time of 10 years over the construction and operation of Majorana, a sensitivity of T 1/ 2 0 ~4 10 27 y is predicted. This corresponds to m ~0.03 0.04 eV according to recent QRPA and RQRPA matrix element calculations.
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