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Department of Physics

COBRA

COBRA is a neutrino physics experiment searching for neutrinoless double beta decay. This rare and weak nuclear decay is predicted for the case that the neutrino is its own antiparticle. The COBRA collaboration operates a prototype detector, the "COBRA Demonstrator," at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS), an underground laboratory in Italy, about 120 km east of Rome. It is used to assess both the technical feasibility and the sensitivity of the COBRA experiment.

The Dortmund working group was involved in the construction of the COBRA demonstrator and studied the data obtained with it, in particular with respect to the estimation of potential signal contributions from neutrinoless double beta decay. In addition, members of our research group investigated new detector geometries and designs, e.g., large CdZnTe detectors with and without segmented electrodes. Various techniques for identifying subsurface processes, such as the analysis of recorded pulse shapes, were also studied.