The Large Enriched Germanium Experiment for Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay (LEGEND)

The observation of neutrinoless double-beta decay (0\({\nu}{\beta}{\beta}\)) would show that lepton number is violated, reveal that neutrinos are Majorana particles, and provide information on neutrino mass. A discovery-capable experiment covering the inverted ordering region, with effective Majorana neutrino masses of 15 - 50 meV, will require a tonne-scale experiment with excellent energy resolution and extremely low backgrounds, at the level of \(\sim\)0.1 count /(FWHM\(\cdot\)t\(\cdot\)yr) in the region of the signal. The current generation \(^{76}\)Ge experiments GERDA and the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR utilizing high purity Germanium detectors with an intrinsic energy resolution of 0.12%, have achieved the lowest backgrounds by over an order of magnitude in the 0\({\nu}{\beta}{\beta}\) signal region of all 0\({\nu}{\beta}{\beta}\) experiments. Building on this success, the LEGEND collaboration has been formed to pursue a tonne-scale \(^{76}\)Ge experiment. The collaboration aims to develop a phased 0\({\nu}{\beta}{\beta}\) experimental program with discovery potential at a half-life approaching or at \(10^{28}\) years, using existing resources as appropriate to expedite physics results.