Dr Cheryl Patrick (University College London)
If it exists, neutrinoless double-beta decay would be the first known lepton-number violating process, creating matter without antimatter. It would also give us clues to the only observed beyond-the-standard model physics - the fact that neutrinos have mass - as it will only be possible if neutrinos are Majorana particles. As this is such an intriguing prospect, there is a wide-ranging international effort to look for the process - but with half-life limits trillions of times longer than the age of the universe, it is a huge challenge. I'll tell you more about the process, and the variety of experimental techniques that can be used to look for it, and introduce SuperNEMO, an unusual detector design that can help us find out more about how double-beta decay mechanisms.
The SuperNEMO Tracker