Improving The Physics Impact Of Next-Generation 76GE Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay Experiments

It was shown that segmentation and pulse-shape discrimination can improve the discovery sensitivity of a next-gen 0vBB-decay experiment by 90%. - However, when practical aspects are considered (such as instrumenting each segment with front-end electronics), the discovery sensitivity is decreased by 19%. - This has extremely important consequences to proposed next-gen experiments since the two active collaborations have strongly advocated the use of segmented detectors for all or part of the experiment. - New germanium detector technology, currently under development, has demonstrated excellent multi-site background rejection capabilities without the complexity of segmentation or complicated PSD algorithms. - The physically-segmented p-type germanium detector technology has proven to be a useful and practical tool in modern nuclear physics. The PSEG technology deserves further development as it has the potential for use in a variety of applications.