Latest results from NEMO-3 and status of SuperNEMO

Abstract : The NEMO-3 experiment performed precise measurement of the double beta decay and searched for the neutrino-less double beta decay on seven isotopes, among which 100 Mo and 82 Se were the dominant ones. The detector, installed in the Laboratoire Souterrain de Modane, took data for 8 years before being decommissioned in 2011. The key feature of NEMO-3 was its unique capabil- ity to fully reconstruct the kinematics of the events, which allowed to reduce the backgrounds and to discriminate among different mechanisms beyond the neutrino-less double beta decay. No evi- dence of 0ν β β has been found with an exposure of 34.3 kg×y of 100 Mo, providing a limit for the light Majorana neutrino mass mechanism of T 0ν β β > 1.1 × 1024 y (90 % C.L.) which corresponds to an effective neutrino mass of |mβ β | < 0.33 − 0.62 eV, depending from the NME considered. Furthermore, no background events in the double electron channel has been found in the energy region 3.2 − 10 MeV after an exposure of 47 kg×y. The same experimental technique is adopted for the next generation experiment called SuperNEMO. The new detector has a modular design with the capability to measure different isotopes at the same time. 48 Ca, 82 Se and 150 Nd are currently under consideration. With 20 detection modules observing for 5 years 100 kg of 82 Se, the expected sensitivity should reach T 0ν > 1026 y (|mβ β | < 0.04 − 0.10 eV), competitive with other experiments. In order to demonstrate the feasibility of the full experiment, the first step is the imminent construction of a first demonstrator module containing 7 kg of 82 Se. With an expected sensitivity of T 0ν > 6.6 × 1024 y (|mβ β | < 0.2 − 0.4 eV) after 2.5 y, the demonstrator module will also be able to perform a competitive measurement.