The search for neutrinoless double beta decay with Cuoricino and Cuore

Abstract

Cuoricino was a cryogenic bolometric detector operating in Gran Sasso Underground Laboratory, Italy, from March 2003 to June 2008. With its 40.7 kg of 130TeO2 in the form of an array of 62 crystals it has set the currently best lower limit on the halflife of 130Te neutrinoless double beta decay, T1/2 > 2.94 · 1024 y at 90 % CL. It has moreover proven the feasibility of the CUORE experiment, whose aim is to be sensitive to values of the effective neutrino mass as low as few tens of meV. We will report on the latest results from Cuoricino and on the status of the CUORE project.