First results from the NEMO-3 experiment

The main goal of the NEMO-3 experiment is to search for neutrinoless double-beta decay and thus to investigate physics beyond the Standard Model. The expected sensitivity for the effective Majorana neutrino mass is on the order of 0.1 eV. The NEMO-3 detector has been completely installed in the Modane Underground Laboratory (LSM), France, and has been taking data since February 2003. In this paper, a brief description of the NEMO-3 detector and some performances of the initial runs are presented. The first preliminary results for both two-neutrino (2{beta}2{nu}) and neutrinoless double-beta decay (2{beta}0{nu}) of {sup 100}Mo, {sup 82}Se, {sup 116}Cd, and {sup 150}Nd are given.