9314576 Sutton This three-year award supports U.S.-France cooperative research in nuclear physics involving C. Sean Sutton and Howard W. Nicholson of Mount Holyoke College and S. Jullian of the University of Paris (Orsay) and others at CNRS laboratories in Bordeaux, Caen and Strasbourg. The U.S. group will join NEMO-3 (Neutrinoless Experiments with Molybdenum), a French, Russian and Ukrainian ongoing collaboration in search of neutrinoless double beta decay. Neutrinos are considered a prime candidate for the missing mass (dark matter) in the universe. One way to probe neutrinos is to search for double beta decay. Using the next generation of detectors in double beta decay, the U.S will participate in the experiments in the Frejus tunnel under the French Alps and in the data analysis in Paris. The U.S. experimentalists have just completed an intensive search for double beta decay in the isotope molybdenum. In this collaboration, they will develop methods to purify the molybdenum samples and study problems of identifying radioactive impurities in the double beta decay source materials. The French bring their considerable expertise in low background engineering and extensive measurements on natural radioactivity content of these materials. The Russian and Ukrainian contribution consists of large quantities of molybdenum with very low radioactivity which is critical for the double beta decay experiments. ***
