First Physics Results from LEGEND-200 Published in Physical Review Letters

The paper, titled
“First Results on the Search for Lepton Number Violating Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay with the LEGEND-200 Experiment”,
presents the initial data from the world’s most sensitive search for neutrinoless double-beta decay of ⁷⁶Ge.

LEGEND follows a staged approach. LEGEND-200, operating up to 200 kg of enriched germanium detectors immersed in liquid argon at the INFN Gran Sasso National Laboratory (LNGS), represents the first stage of the LEGEND scientific program. While LEGEND-200 will continue data taking toward a discovery sensitivity beyond 10²⁷ years, the next stage, LEGEND-1000, with a total detector mass of one ton of enriched germanium, is currently under preparation. The ultimate goal of the LEGEND program is to search for lepton-number violation and the Majorana nature of neutrinos with a discovery sensitivity beyond 10²⁸ years.

This first milestone of LEGEND-200 marks an important step toward answering one of the central questions of modern physics — whether neutrinos are their own antiparticles and how this relates to the origin of matter in the universe.

Read the accepted paper here:

Physical Review Letters – Accepted Paper