ISOTTA is a funded project in the framework of the ASPERA 2nd Common Call for R&D Activities.
Oscillation experiments show that neutrinos are massive particles. This fact leads us beyond the Standard Model and poses the crucial quest of the neutrino mass scale and nature (Dirac or Majorana fermion?). The search for neutrinoless Double Beta Decay is the only viable tool to solve this pressing problem. Future experiments are however bound to a severe technological issue: the procurement of ultrapure isotopically enriched materials at the ton scale, necessary to explore the inverted hierarchy region of the neutrino mass pattern. This project aims at reviewing the existing isotope producers, at investigating new enrichment technologies, and at developing techniques able to test the radiopurity of enriched samples at the level of few μBq/kg. This difficult task requires the deployment of an arsenal of methods which often prefigure the final detector itself. Identification of possible purification procedures and development of methods to produce pure enriched sources is an important part of the project. The present program provides a coordinated approach to the isotope problem, joining synergically the expertises of the main European actors in this field.
Participating Laboratories:
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CSNSM, Orsay, France
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, LAL, Orsay, France
Université Paris-Sud 11, Orsay, France
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CENBG, Bordeaux, France
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sez. di Milano-Bicocca, Italy
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sez. di Roma1, Italy
Università la Sapienza, Roma, Italy
H. Niewodniczanski Institute of Nuclear Physics, Krakow, Poland
Andrzej Sołtan Institute for Nuclear Studies, Łodz, Poland
Institute of Physics, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland
University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland
Associated partners:
Institute for Nuclear Research, Kyiv, Ukraine
Technische Universität Dresden, Germany
Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna, Russia
Duration of the ISOTTA project: 1/1/2012 – 31/12/2014
