The CUORE (Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events) experiment will search for neutrinoless double beta decay of $^{130}$Te. With 741 kg of TeO$_2$ crystals and an excellent energy resolution of 5 keV (0.2%) at the region of interest, CUORE will be one of the most competitive neutrinoless double beta decay experiments on the horizon. With five years of live time, CUORE projected neutrinoless double beta decay half-life sensitivity is $1.6\times 10^{26}$ y at $1\sigma$ ($9.5\times10^{25}$ y at the 90% confidence level), which corresponds to an upper limit on the effective Majorana mass in the range 40--100 meV (50--130 meV). Further background rejection with auxiliary light detector can significantly improve the search sensitivity and competitiveness of bolometric detectors to fully explore the inverted neutrino mass hierarchy with $^{130}$Te and possibly other double beta decay candidate nuclei.

Beta decay

Sigma

10.48550/arxiv.1407.1094

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Status of CUORE Experiment and latest results from CUORE-0

HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) (2016)

C. Pagliarone C. Alduino K. Alfonso D. R. Artusa F. T. Avignone

10.1393/ncc/i2016-16375-9

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Searching for Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay of Te-130 with CUORE

Artusa F. T. Avignone O. Azzolini M. Balata T.I. Banks

Neutrinoless double-beta (0 gamma beta beta) decay is a hypothesized lepton-number-violating process that offers the only known means of asserting the possible Majorana nature of neutrino mass. The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) is an upcoming experiment designed to search for 0 gamma beta beta decay of Te-130 using an array of 988 TeO2 crystal bolometers operated at 10 mK. The detector will contain 206 kg of Te-130 and have an average energy resolution of 5 keV; the projected 0 gamma beta beta decay half-life sensitivity after five years of livetime is 1.6 x 10 2(6) y at 1 sigma (9.5 x 10(25) y at the 90% confidence level), which corresponds to an upper limit on the effective Majorana mass in the range 40-100 meV (50-130 meV). In this paper, we review the experimental techniques used in CUORE as well as its current status and anticipated physics reach.

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Lepton number

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Background identification in cryogenic calorimeters through $$\alpha -\alpha $$ delayed coincidences

The European Physical Journal C (2021)

O. Azzolini J. W. Beeman F. Bellini M. Beretta M. Biassoni

Localization and modeling of radioactive contaminations is a challenge that ultra-low background experiments are constantly facing. These are fundamental steps both to extract scientific results and to further reduce the background of the detectors. Here we present an innovative technique based on the analysis of $\alpha-\alpha$ delayed coincidences in $^{232}$Th and $^{238}$U decay chains, developed to investigate the contaminations of the ZnSe crystals in the CUPID-0 experiment. This method allows to disentangle surface and bulk contaminations of the detectors relying on the different probability to tag delayed coincidences as function of the $\alpha$ decay position.

Alpha (finance)

Alpha decay

Alpha particle

Identification

Decay chain

Radioactive decay

10.1140/epjc/s10052-021-09476-z

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Particle discrimination in TeO2 bolometers

N. Casali J. W. Beeman F. Bellini L. Cardani I. Dafinei

TeO2 crystals are used as bolometric detectors in experiments searching for the neutrinoless double beta decay. The extreme rarity of the studied signal requires an ultra low background level. The natural radioactivity of the materials represents for these experiments the main background source, in particular the component due to α particles. In this work, we present a possibility for particle discrimination in TeO2 bolometers using the ˇCerenkov radiation. The results show that we are able to measure the light produced by β/γ particles, which can be explained as due to ˇCerenkov emission. No light is detected from α particles, allowing the rejection of this background source.

Particle (ecology)

Background radiation

Particle detector

α particles

SIGNAL (programming language)

Particle identification

10.1393/ncc/i2013-11407-8

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Doping of the Hubbard bands in uniaxially stressed Ge:Cu

APS (2000)

Hughes H. Silvestri O. D. Dubón E. E. Haller W. Walukiewicz J. W. Beeman

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Performances of a large mass ZnSe bolometer to search for rare events

Journal of Instrumentation (2013)

J. W. Beeman F. Bellini L. Cardani N. Casali I. Dafinei

Scintillating bolometers of ZnSe are the baseline choice of the LUCIFER experiment, whose aim is to observe the neutrinoless double beta decay of 82Se. The independent read-out of the heat and scintillation signals allows to identify and reject alpha particle interactions, the dominant background source for bolometric detectors. In this paper we report the performances of a ZnSe crystal operated within the LUCIFER R&D. We measured the scintillation yield, the energy resolution and the background in the energy region where the signal from neutrinoless double beta decay of 82Se is expected with an exposure of 9.4 kg x days. With a newly developed analysis algorithm we improved the rejection of alpha events, and we estimated the increase in energy resolution obtained by the combination of the heat and light signals. For the first time we measured the light emitted by nuclear recoils, and found it to be compatible with zero. We conclude that the discrimination of nuclear recoils from beta/gamma interactions in the WIMPs energy region is possible, but low-noise light detectors are needed.

BETA (programming language)

10.1088/1748-0221/8/05/p05021

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First bolometric measurement of the two neutrino double beta decay of¹⁰⁰Mo with a ZnMoO₄crystals array

Journal of Physics G Nuclear and Particle Physics (2014)

L. Cardani L. Gironi N. Ferreiro Iachellini L. Pattavina J. W. Beeman

The large statistics collected during the operation of a ZnMoO4 array, for a total exposure of 1.3 kg day of 100Mo, allowed the first bolometric observation of the two neutrino double beta decay of 100Mo. The observed spectrum of each crystal was reconstructed taking into account the different background contributions due to environmental radioactivity and internal contamination. The analysis of coincidences between the crystals allowed the assignment of constraints to the intensity of the different background sources, resulting in a reconstruction of the measured spectrum down to an energy of ∼300 keV. The half-life extracted from the data is T = [7.15 ± 0.37 (stat) ± 0.66 (syst)] × 1018 y.

Energy spectrum

Beta decay

Crystal (programming language)

Intensity

BETA (programming language)

10.1088/0954-3899/41/7/075204

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Search for neutrinoless double beta decay with CUORICINO and prospects for CUORE

M. Barucci L. Risegari G. Ventura S. Di Domizio A. Giachero

CUORICINO is a cryogenic detector running in Gran Sasso National Laboratory, Italy, since 2003. With its 40.7 kg mass of TeO2 mass, in the form of an array of 62 crystals, it has proven the feasibil- ity of the CUORE experiment, whose aim is to be sensitive to the effective neutrino mass as low as a few tens of meV. It has moreover set the current lower limit on the lifetime of 130 Te for neutrinoless double beta decay: we report on the up-to-date CUORICINO results and discuss the prospects for CUORE.

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CUORE opens the door to tonne-scale cryogenics experiments

Progress in Particle and Nuclear Physics (2021)

Douglas Q. Adams C. Alduino F. Alessandria K. Alfonso E. Andreotti

Cryostat

Cryogenics

10.1016/j.ppnp.2021.103902

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Citations (27)