Cryogenic Underground Observatory For Rare Events Research Articles

Status of the CUORE experiment

One of the fundamental open questions in elementary particle physics is the value of the neutrino mass and its nature of Dirac or Majorana particle. Neutrinoless double beta decay (DBD0ν) is a key tool for investigating these neutrino properties and for finding answers to the open questions concerning mass hierarchy and absolute scale. Experimental techniques based on the calorimetric approach with cryogenic particle detectors are proved to be suitable for the search of this rare decay, thanks to high energy resolution and large mass of the detectors. The CUORE (Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events) experiment will search for DBD0ν in 130Te. The CUORE setup consists in an array of 988 tellurium dioxide crystals, operated as bolometers, with a total mass of about 230 kg of 130Te. The experiment is under construction at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Italy. As a first step towards CUORE, a tower prototype (CUORE-0) has been assembled and is running. In this talk a detailed description of the CUORE-0 tower, its performances and the expected sensitivity will be given. The status of the CUORE experiment, its critical points and its expected sensitivity on the base of what we will learn with CUORE-0 will then be discussed.

CUORE and CUORE-0 status: toward a next-generation neutrinoless double beta decay experiment

The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) experiment search for the neutrinoless double beta decay (0νDBD) of 130Te. The first step toward the experiment is represent by CUORE-0, a single CUORE-like tower that is operated in the former CUORICINO cryostat, to validate the assembly procedure and that will also serve as a sensitive 0νDBD experiment in its own right. The status of CUORE and CUORE-0 and their sensitivities are reported.

CUORE and CUORE-0 status: toward a next-generation neutrinoless double beta decay experiment

The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) experiment will search for the neutrinoless double beta decay of 130Te and other rare events. The first step towards the experiment is CUORE-0, a single CUORE-like tower that will operate in the former CUORICINO cryostat. CUORE-0 will validate the assembly procedure and serve as a sensitive experiment in its own right. The status of CUORE and CUORE-0 and their sensitivities are reported.

Search for neutrinoless double beta decay with CUORE

The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) is an experiment to search for neutrinoless double beta decay (0νDBD) in 130Te and other rare processes. The observation of 0νDBD would indicate that neutrinos are Majorana particles and would provide information about the absolute neutrino mass scale. CUORE is a bolometric detector composed of 988 TeO2 crystals, with the total mass of about 750kg of natural Tellurium. We will discuss the status of the CUORE experiment, including recent R&D efforts, anticipated sensitivity, and present the most recent results from Cuoricino, the predecessor experiment operated in Gran Sasso National Laboratories in Italy.

Direct Dark Matter detection with CUORE

The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) is an experiment to search for neutrinoless double beta decay in 130Te and other rare processes. CUORE is a bolometric detector composed of 988 TeO2 crystals, with the total mass of about 1 tonne. The large detector mass, low backgrounds, and the low energy threshold of a few keV make the experiment well suited for direct detection of galactic dark matter particles and solar axions. We discuss the development of a novel low-energy trigger that enables such searches, and present the preliminary results from a test run with four CUORE-like crystals at Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Italy.

The status of the CUORE experiment

The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) is an experiment to search for neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ) in 130Te and other rare processes. The observation of 0νββ would indicate that neutrinos are Majorana particles and would provide information about the absolute neutrino mass scale. CUORE is a bolometric detector composed of 988 TeO2 crystals, with the total mass of about 750 kg of Tellurium. We will discuss the status of the CUORE experiment, including recent R&D efforts, anticipated sensitivity, and present the most recent results from CUORICINO, the predecessor experiment operated in Gran Sasso National Laboratories in Italy.

Final results of Cuoricino and status of CUORE

Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay ( 0 ν β β ) is a crucial tool to probe neutrino properties. The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) is an experiment currently being built in the Gran Sasso Underground Lab and is conceived to search for the 0 ν β β of 130 Te. The status of the experiment is described and the final results of the predecessor Cuoricino experiment are reported.

Status of CUORE and results from CUORICINO

CUORE (Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events) is a ton-scale bolometric experiment for the search of Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay of 130Te. The detector, an array of 988 TeO2 crystals arranged in 19 towers, will probe the Majorana nature of neutrino in the inverted mass-hierarchy region. Currently under construction at the Underground Gran Sasso National Laboratories, Italy, the experiment is foreseen to start data taking by 2012. The feasibility of CUORE was demonstrated by the recently completed pilot experiment CUORICINO, which set a lower limit on the Double Beta Decay time of 130Te of T 1 / 2 0 ν > 3.1 × 10 24 y . The status of CUORE and the results from CUORICINO will be presented.

CUORE EXPERIMENT: THE SEARCH FOR NEUTRINOLESS DOUBLE BETA DECAY

The main purpose of the Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) experiment is the search for the Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay (0νDBD) of 130 Te reaching a sensitivity on Majorana mass better than 50 meV. Cuoricino represents not only the first stage of CUORE, but also the most massive 0νDBD experiment presently running. Present results and future planning of these experiments will be described in the paper.

From Cuoricino to CUORE: investigating the inverted hierarchy region of neutrino mass

Cuoricino is a Double Beta Decay experiment operating deep underground, in the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, Italy; at a depth of about 3500 m.w.e. The search for the 0νββ of 130Te is carried out with the bolometric technique and an upper limit of 3×1024 y (@ 90%C.L.) is set for this process. Cuoricino represents not only the most sensitive DBD Experiment presently operating but also a prototype for a next generation experiment, CUORE (Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events). The expected performance and sensitivity, based on Monte Carlo simulations and extrapolations of the present Cuoricino results, indicate that CUORE will be able to test the 0.02-0.05 eV region for the effective neutrino mass, having a high discovery potential in the inverted hierarchy region of the neutrino mass pattern.

Search for neutrinoless double beta decay with the CUORE detector

CUORE (Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events) is a 1-ton experiment to search for Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay of 130Te using 988 TeO2 bolometers. It aims at reaching the sensitivity on the effective neutrino mass of the order of few tens of meV. CUORICINO, a single CUORE tower running since 2003 in the Gran Sasso Underground Laboratory (Italy), plays an important role as a standing alone experiment for developing the future CUORE setup. The latest limit obtained on the Majorana mass is presented. The effort in improving the detector sensitivity and background reduction is also reported.

The CUORICINO and CUORE double beta decay experiments

After an introduction on the various experimental techniques to be adopted in searches for double beta decay, the new approach based on the use of cryogenic low temperature detectors is described. The present results are reported on the limit for neutrinoless double beta decay of 130Te obtained with the large bolometric detector CUORICINO. This setup consists of 44 cubic crystals of natural TeO 2 with 5 cm sides and 18 crystals of 3×3×6 cm 3. Four of these latter crystals are made with isotopically enriched materials: two in 128Te and two others in 130Te. With a sensitive mass of 40.7 kg, this array is by far the most massive running cryogenic detector. The array is operated at a temperature of ∼10 mK in a dilution refrigerator under a heavy shield in the Gran Sasso Underground Laboratory at a depth of about 3500 m.w.e. The counting rate in the region of neutrinoless double beta decay is 0.18±0.02 counts keV −1 kg −1 y −1, among the lowest in this type of experiment. No evidence for neutrinoless double beta decay is found. The corresponding lower limit for the lifetime of this process is 2×10 24 years at 90% C.L. The resultant upper limit on the effective neutrino mass ranges between 0.2 and 1.0 eV, depending on the theoretically calculated nuclear matrix elements. This constraint is the most restrictive one, except for those obtained with Ge diodes, and is comparable to them. The second part of this report is devoted to the present status of the construction of the larger experiment CUORE (Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events) formed from 988 bolometers with a cubic TeO 2 absorber of size 5×5×5 cm 3, with a total mass of ∼750 kg. We present technical details of the CUORE setup as well as of its location and our efforts to reduce radioactive backgrounds.

First results from the Cuoricino experiment

At the end of 2001 the Milano Double Beta Decay (MI-DBD) experiment on double beta decay of 130Te has been completed. The project Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE), proposed as a natural extension of MI-DBD, will be a tightly packed array of 1000 TeO2 bolometers, each being a cube 5cm on a side with a mass of 790g. The array will consists of 25 vertical towers, arranged in a square of 5 towers by 5 towers, each containing 10 layers of 4 crystals. A single CUORE tower has been constructed as a smaller scale experiment called CUORICINO. The technical feasibility of CUORE is now being tested in CUORICINO, running since few weeks. The CUORICINO experiment consists of 44 TeO2 detectors 5×5×5cm3 and 18 TeO2 detectors 3×3×6cm3 for a total mass of approximately 41kg. An analysis of the detector performances is presented together with the new limit obtained on neutrinoless double beta decay of 130Te.

Physics potential and prospects for the CUORICINO and CUORE experiments

The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) experiment projects to construct and operate an array of 1000 cryogenic thermal detectors of TeO 2, of a mass of 760 g each, to investigate rare events physics, in particular, double beta decay and non-baryonic particle dark matter. A first step towards CUORE is CUORICINO, an array of 62 bolometers, currently being installed in the Gran Sasso Laboratory. In this paper we report the physics potential of both stages of the experiment regarding neutrinoless double beta decay of 130Te, WIMP searches and solar axions.