Speaker
Description
CUORE is the world's largest bolometric experiment, featuring a detector comprised of 988 TeO2 crystals with a total mass exceeding 740 kg. Since 2017, CUORE has been collecting data at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy, with the main goal of searching for the neutrinoless double-beta decay (0nbb) of 130Te. This process is of paramount importance in particle physics due to its implications in neutrino physics and on the conservation of the lepton number. A specially designed cryogen-free cryostat enables the achievement of a stable base temperature of about 10 mK, crucial for the optimal functioning of the detector. This apparatus has been meticulously designed to meet stringent experimental requirements, ensuring the detector's optimal functionality over a year-long period. The entire experimental volume, approximately a cubic meter in size, is maintained at a stable temperature with fluctuations smaller than 0.1 mK, minimizing detector noise. A strict selection of construction materials, predominantly high-purity copper, has been imposed to mitigate radioactive background, with approximately 7 tonnes of shielding lead integrated into the structure. At the end of the CUORE data-taking, the same cryogenic infrastructure will host the CUPID detector, an upgraded version of CUORE with enhanced sensitivity, aiming to search for the 0nbb of 100Mo with a half-life sensitivity beyond 1E27 yr. This presentation offers an overview of the CUORE cryostat, detailing its sub-systems and focusing on the solutions devised to meet all the requirements. We outline the various phases of cryostat commissioning until the cooldown of the CUORE detector, and describe its performance over the years-long data-taking period. Finally, we present the planned upgrades to the apparatus during the transition from CUORE to CUPID.
| Submitters Country | Italy |
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