Results of the LEGEND-200 experiment in the search for 0 <i>νββ</i> decay

The LEGEND experiment is looking for the extremely rare neutrinoless double beta (0 νββ ) decay of 76 Ge using isotopically-enriched high-purity germanium (HPGe) detectors. The detection of this process would imply that the neutrino is a Majorana particle and the total lepton number would not be conserved, which could be related to the cosmological asymmetry between matter and antimatter through leptogenesis. The long-term goal of the collaboration is LEGEND-1000: a 1-ton detector array planned to run for 10 years, with a projected half-life sensitivity exceeding 10 28 years, fully covering the inverted neutrino mass hierarchy. A first search for the 0 νββ decay has been carried out by LEGEND-200 building on the experience gained from GERDA and the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR. The experiment has been collecting physics data for a year at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Italy with 140 kg of HPGe detectors. With a total exposure of 61 kg yr, LEGEND-200 has achieved a background index of $$5_{ - 2}^{ + 3}\, \times \,{10^{ - 4}}$$ counts/(keV kg yr) in the 0 νββ decay signal region from the highest performing detectors. After combining the results from GERDA, the MAJORANA Demonstrator and LEGEND-200, an exclusion sensitivity &gt; 2.8 × 10 26 yr has been obtained at 90% confidence level for the 0 νββ decay half-life, with no evidence for a signal. A new observed lower limit of $$T_{1/2}^{0v}\, &gt; \,1.9\, \times \,{10^{26}}$$ yr at 90% confidence level has been established.