Collaboration:
Location of the experiment: LNGS for cryogenic measurements, Milano-Bicocca for Radioactivity Measurements and Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory for the thermistor production and optimization
National Responsible: E. Fiorini (Mi)
1. Goal of the experiment
CUORE is the acronym for "Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events". It consists in a series of experiments with very massive cryogenic detectors to investigate rare processes like double beta decay, interactions of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPS) and solar axions and to search for rare nuclear decays.
2.
Activities during 2002
The experiment based on the 20 crystal
array has been concluded to leave the space to the CUORICINO
set-up. A paper on the results on neutrinoless double beta decay
and with the first direct indication for two neutrino
double beta decay has been accepted by Phys.Lett.B
The final results on the beta decay of Te-123 are published in
the Januray issue of Phys.Rev. C
Results on Dark matter have been presented at the IDM2002
Conference in Sheffield
CUORICINO has been mounted and the first events were seen at the
beginning of 2003
A detailed technical proposal for CUORE is going to be published
in Nucl.Instrum. and Meth. A. T A paper on the physical
motivations of CUORE has been submitted to Astroparticle Physics
R&D for radioactive background reduction and tests on new
type of suspentions and thermalization have been carried out in
Hall C
The following achievements have been obtained:
(*) The whole setup has been completed at the end of January 2003. The measurement will start before the end of February.
(**) The test of new crystals have been posponed after the Cuoricino measurement start.
Milestones 2003
Preliminary
results on neutrinoless and two neutrino double beta
decay |
30-06-2003 |
Advanced
results on neutrinoless double beta decay |
31-12-2003 |
Presentation
of the CUORE proposal |
31-12-2003 |
3. INFN contribution to the experiment in terms of manpower and financial support
4. Publications in refereed journals (in 2002): 4
5. Conference talks (in 2002): 5
6. Number of undergraduate and doctoral thesis on the experiment:
n.3 Laurea diplomas
7. Leadership role and primary responsibilities of the experiment
E.Fiorini (Mi) is the spokesman of the experiment.
Milano Group is responsible of the cryogenic activity and of the measurement of the radioactive background;
Milano group is the only one involved in development of data acquisition and electronic read-out for arrays of cryogenic detectors
8.Innovative instruments:
As mentioned before the presently operating array is by large the most massive ultra-cryogenic set-up in the world
The alpha particle resolution obtained with the large crystal of tellurides is the best of the ones obtained with any type of detector
9.Competing experiments
There are only four other groups so far operating massive detectors underground and none of them searches for beta decay
The Milano group is the only one to perform gamma spectroscopy at high energy and alpha spectroscopy with thermal detectors
10.International committee which has reviewed the experiment
CUORICINO, the first phase of CUORE experiment, is annually reviewed by the INFN National Committee II.
The status of CUORICINO has been reported and approved in September by the International Scientific Committee of the Gran Sasso Underground Laboratory and by the funding authorities of INFN and DOE (for the Berkeley group)