Final Report On The Search For Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay Of Ge-76 From The Gotthard Underground Experiment

We report here on the final results of a search for Ge-76 double-beta decay conducted in the Gotthard underground laboratory. The detector consists of an array of eight high-purity natural germanium crystals totaling 1095 cm3 fiducial volume. The accumulated data set represents a sensitivity of 10.0 kg yr. No indication of neutrinoless double-beta decay was found. The measured half-life limits are T1/2(0+ --> 0+) > 6.0(3.3) x 10(23) yr for the transition to the ground state and T1/2(0+ --> 2+) > 1.4(0.65) x 10(23) yr for the transition to the first excited state at 68% (90%) C.L. From these results we derive an upper limit for the Majorana mass of the neutrino in the range of 1.8 to 6.7 eV depending on matrix-element calculations. The same results allow limits to be set for the right-handed-current parameters: < 3.6 x 10(-6) and < 2.2 x 10(-8).