Speakers
Description
The CUORE experiment is a ton-scale array of TeO$_2$ cryogenic bolometers located at the underground Gran Sasso National Laboratories, in Italy. The CUORE detector consists of 988 crystals operated as source and detector at a base temperature of $\sim$10 mK. The primary goal of CUORE is the search for neutrinoless double beta (0$\nu\beta\beta$) decay of $^{130}$Te, but thanks to its large target mass and ultra-low background it is suitable for the study of other rare processes as well, one of these being the 0$\nu\beta\beta$ decay of another tellurium isotope: the $^{128}$Te. The $^{128}$Te is an attractive candidate for the search of this process, due to its high natural isotopic abundance of 31.75%. The transition energy at Q$_{\beta\beta}=(866.6\pm0.9)$ keV lies in a highly populated region of the energy spectrum, dominated by the contribution of the $2\nu\beta\beta$ decay of $^{130}$Te and the natural $\gamma$ background due to environmental radioactivity. With its ton-scale mass, CUORE is able to achieve a factor >10 higher sensitivity to the 0$\nu\beta\beta$ decay of this isotope with respect to past direct experiments.
