1. First Results from CUORE: A Search for Lepton Number Violation via $0\nu\beta\beta$ Decay of $^{130}$Te
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CUORE Collaboration, Alduino, C., Alfonso, K., Andreotti, E., Arnaboldi, C., Avignone III, F. T., Azzolini, O., Bandac, I., Banks, T. I., Bari, G., Barucci, M., Beeman, J. W., Bellini, F., Benato, G., Bersani, A., Biare, D., Biassoni, M., Branca, A., Brofferio, C., Bryant, A., Buccheri, A., Bucci, C., Bulfon, C., Camacho, A., Caminata, A., Canonica, L., Cao, X. G., Capelli, S., Capodiferro, M., Cappelli, L., Cardani, L., Carniti, P., Carrettoni, M., Casali, N., Cassina, L., Ceruti, G., Chiarini, A., Chiesa, D., Chott, N., Clemenza, M., Copello, S., Cosmelli, C., Cremonesi, O., Crescentini, C., Creswick, R. J., Cushman, J. S., D'Addabbo, A., D'Aguanno, D., Dafinei, I., Davis, C. J., Del Corso, F., Dell'Oro, S., Deninno, M. M., Di Domizio, S., Di Vacri, M. L., Di Paolo, L., Drobizhev, A., Ejzak, L., Faccini, R., Fang, D. Q., Faverzani, M., Ferri, E., Ferroni, F., Fiorini, E., Franceschi, M. A., Freedman, S. J., Fujikawa, B. K., Giachero, A., Gironi, L., Giuliani, A., Gladstone, L., Goett, J., Gorla, P., Gotti, C., Guandalini, C., Guerzoni, M., Gutierrez, T. D., Haller, E. E., Han, K., Hansen, E. V., Heeger, K. M., Hennings-Yeomans, R., Hickerson, K. P., Huang, H. Z., Iannone, M., Kadel, R., Keppel, G., Kogler, L., Kolomensky, Yu. G., Leder, A., Ligi, C., Lim, K. E., Ma, Y. G., Maiano, C., Marini, L., Martinez, M., Amaya, C. Martinez, Maruyama, R. H., Mei, Y., Moggi, N., Morganti, S., Mosteiro, P. J., Nagorny, S. S., Napolitano, T., Nastasi, M., Nones, C., Norman, E. B., Novati, V., Nucciotti, A., Nutini, I., O'Donnell, T., Olivieri, E., Orio, F., Ouellet, J. L., Pagliarone, C. E., Pallavicini, M., Palmieri, V., Pattavina, L., Pavan, M., Pedretti, M., Pelosi, A., Pessina, G., Pettinacci, V., Piperno, G., Pira, C., Pirro, S., Pozzi, S., Previtali, E., Reindl, F., Rimondi, F., Risegari, L., Rosenfeld, C., Rusconi, C., Sakai, M., Sala, E., Salvioni, C., Sangiorgio, S., Santone, D., Schaeffer, D., Schmidt, B., Schmidt, J., Scielzo, N. D., Singh, V., Sisti, M., Smith, A. R., Stivanello, F., Taffarello, L., Tenconi, M., Terranova, F., Tomei, C., Ventura, G., Vignati, M., Wagaarachchi, S. L., Wang, B. S., Wang, H. W., Welliver, B., Wilson, J., Wilson, K., Winslow, L. A., Wise, T., Zanotti, L., Zhang, G. Q., Zhu, B. X., Zimmermann, S., and Zucchelli, S.
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Nuclear Experiment ,High Energy Physics - Experiment ,Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors - Abstract
The CUORE experiment, a ton-scale cryogenic bolometer array, recently began operation at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy. The array represents a significant advancement in this technology, and in this work we apply it for the first time to a high-sensitivity search for a lepton-number--violating process: $^{130}$Te neutrinoless double-beta decay. Examining a total TeO$_2$ exposure of 86.3 kg$\cdot$yr, characterized by an effective energy resolution of (7.7 $\pm$ 0.5) keV FWHM and a background in the region of interest of (0.014 $\pm$ 0.002) counts/(keV$\cdot$kg$\cdot$yr), we find no evidence for neutrinoless double-beta decay. The median statistical sensitivity of this search is $7.0\times10^{24}$ yr. Including systematic uncertainties, we place a lower limit on the decay half-life of $T^{0\nu}_{1/2}$($^{130}$Te) > $1.3\times 10^{25}$ yr (90% C.L.). Combining this result with those of two earlier experiments, Cuoricino and CUORE-0, we find $T^{0\nu}_{1/2}$($^{130}$Te) > $1.5\times 10^{25}$ yr (90% C.L.), which is the most stringent limit to date on this decay. Interpreting this result as a limit on the effective Majorana neutrino mass, we find $m_{\beta\beta}<(110 - 520)$ meV, where the range reflects the nuclear matrix element estimates employed., Comment: Published in PRL, reference and DOI added
- Published
- 2017
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