First results from CUORE-0 and status of the CUORE experiment

by Dr Lucia Canonica

Wednesday 4 Dec 2013, 17:00 → 18:00 Europe/Berlin

Auditorium (MPI fuer Physik)

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 (DBD0$\nu$) is a key tool for investigating these neutrino properties and for finding answers to the open questions concerning mass hierarchy and absolute scale. The CUORE (Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events) experiment will search for DBD0$\nu$ in Te-130. The CUORE setup consists in an array of 988 tellurium dioxide crystals, operated as bolometers at a temperature of about 10mK, with a total mass of about 230 kg of Te-130. 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 it is running. In this talk the first results and performance of CUORE-0 will be discussed. I will also report on the status of the CUORE experiment and its expected sensitivity.