GENIUS: a new dark matter project

GErmanium in liquid NItrogen Underground Setup (GENIUS) is a proposal for a high mass germanium experiment with a much larger sensitivity for direct W IMP detection relative to existing experiments. It would operate 1 ton of " naked" Ge-detectors in a liquid nitrogen shielding of very low level radioa ctivity. Already in a first 100 kg of natural Ge version, GENIUS would be a ble to reach a sensitivity of the order 0.01 counts/d kg and additionally t o look for the annual modulation WIMP-signature. Operating 1 t of enriched Ge-76-detectors, GENIUS could search for the neutrinoless double beta decay , probing neutrino masses down to 0.02 eV. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. A ll rights reserved.