Abstract

The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) is an upcoming experiment designed to search for the neutrinoless double-beta decays. Observation of the process would unambiguously establish that neutrinos are Majorana particles and provide information on their absolute mass scale hierarchy. CUORE is now under construction and will consist of an array of 988 TeO2 crystal bolometers operated at 10 mK, but the first tower (CUORE-0) is already taking data. The experimental techniques used will be presented as well as the preliminary CUORE-0 results. The current status of the full-mass experiment and its expected sensitivity will then be discussed.

Highlights

  • Since the discovery of neutrino oscillations the interest in neutrino physics has increased, but some crucial questions concerning the nature of neutrinos remain open: the ordering and the absolute scale of the masses of the three generations, the charge conjugation and the lepton number conservation properties

  • If neutrinos are Majorana particles, i.e. are identical to their own antiparticle, the νe from one single beta decay may be absorbed in the second beta decay vertex which would result in a final state without neutrinos and a lepton number violation of two units: (Z, A) −→ (Z + 2, A) + 2e−

  • The program resumed in 2013 with the Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE)-0 experiment built to demonstrate the feasibility of a largescale bolometric experiment (CUORE) and its potentials, and to test the stringent procedures to be adopted in the assembly line and many design improvements

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Summary

Introduction

Since the discovery of neutrino oscillations the interest in neutrino physics has increased, but some crucial questions concerning the nature of neutrinos remain open: the ordering and the absolute scale of the masses of the three generations, the charge conjugation and the lepton number conservation properties. Observation of the 0νββ process, that violates lepton number conservation, would demonstrate the Majorana nature of neutrinos. At the same time it would allow to set constraints on the absolute mass scale. It should be noted, that 0νββ could be mediated by some exotic mechanism that would spoil most of the information concerning the neutrino mass; it would still be the only way to probe the Majorana nature of neutrinos

The neutrinoless double-beta decay process
The decay rate
Signature
Bolometric technique
Sensitivity
A phased search program
Isotopic abundance and detector mass
Background
Energy Resolution
CUORE-0 Preliminary Results
Efficiency
Constructions status
Projected sensitivity
10. A half-life sensitivity close to 1025 years is expected for a
Beyond CUORE
Findings
Conclusions

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