The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (“CUORE”) is an experiment located at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Assergi, Italy where we pursue the search for neutrinoless double beta decay.
The CUORE Collaboration is an international group of physicists from many countries, primarily Italy and the US.
WHAT WE DO
About CUORE &
Our Research
Double beta decay is a rare second-order process involving the emission of two electrons from a nucleus simultaneously. Physicists have postulated a process that, if observed, could answer some of these questions: neutrinoless double beta decay.
ABOUT
The project CUPID is an upgrade of the CUORE experiment, aiming at searching for neutrinoless double beta (0νββ) decay with Li2100MoO4 scintillating crystals enriched in Mo. The crystals are operated as cryogenic detectors in the zero-background condition for its entire life cycle, which provides the fastest increase of sensitivity over the data collection time. The zero background condition is achievable via the particle discrimination in the scintillation channel.
Finding Neutrinoless Double Decay
The Way to Discovery
Background
In 1930, Wolfgang Pauli wrote a letter addressed to the “dear radioactive ladies and gentlemen” at a physics conference in Tübingen, Germany. In the letter, he predicted the existence of a new, neutral particle to solve a problem in beta decay experiments. These experiments had found that, counter to expectations, the electrons emitted in beta decays did not carry the full energy of the decays.
Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay
Neutrinoless double beta (0νββ) decay violates the rules of the Standard Model of Particle Physics. Specifically, if the electrons are emitted without neutrinos, this violates lepton number conservation. Any process that violates lepton number conservation (such as 0νββ decay) opens the door to theoretical physics models seeking to explain why there is more matter than antimatter in the universe. Additionally, the observation of 0νββ decay would demonstrate that neutrinos are their own antiparticles and hint at a value for their Majorana mass component.
The CUORE Detector
CUORE uses bolometers to search for neutrinoless double beta (0νββ) decay and other rare processes. Our bolometers are ultra-cold tellurium dioxide (TeO2) crystals containing the candidate 0νββ isotope 130Te. Every time a tellurium nucleus decays or a particle interacts in the crystal, it releases a minute amount of energy (less than a few MeV), causing the temperature of the crystal to rise slightly. This rise in temperature is then converted into an electrical signal using temperature-dependent resistors (thermistors). For this temperature rise to be measurable, the baseline temperature of the crystals must be very low. We use ultra-cold cryogenic temperatures: a few thousandths of a degree above absolute zero.
The CUORE detectors and their shielding must be cooled to approximately 10 mK before they can take data. We cool them using one of the largest and most powerful helium dilution refrigerators ever constructed. Our cryostat produces the coldest cubic meter in the known universe.
COLLABORATION
Partners from Around the Globe
CUORE is a collaboration among over 150 scientists from more than 30 institutions world-wide.
Thank You to the CUORE Sponsors
Inquiries:
For general or media inquiries, please contact CUORE spokesperson Carlo Bucci at cuore-spokesperson@lngs.infn.it
For speaking engagements or other conference information, please contact cuore-speaker@mailman.yale.edu
For questions or comments about this website, please write to cuore-outreach@mailman.yale.edu
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