Published April 2, 2002 | Version v1
Journal article

CUORE: The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events

  • 1. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720 (United States)
  • 2. University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720 (United States)
  • 3. Universita degli Studi dell'Insubria, Como I-22100 (Italy)
  • 4. Universita di Firenze, Florence I-50125 (Italy)
  • 5. Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, I-67010, Assergi (Italy)
  • 6. Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro, I-35020, Legnaro (Italy)
  • 7. Leiden University, 2300 RAQ, Leiden (Netherlands)
  • 8. Universita di Milano-Bicocca, Milan I-20126 (Italy)

Description

The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) will be a large-scale, multi-purpose observatory that is planned for construction in the Gran Sasso underground laboratory in Italy. Its primary focus will be on a search for the neutrinoless double-beta decay of 130Te. The source/detector will be composed of one thousand 5-cmx5-cmx5-cm single crystals of TeO2 all housed in a common dilution refrigerator. Attached to each crystal will be one or more neutron-transmutation-doped (NTD) germanium thermistors that will measure the small temperature rise produced in a crystal when radiation is absorbed. The high natural isotopic abundance of 130Te (33.8%) makes the use of isotopically enriched material unnecessary. In addition, the high Q-value for the double-beta decay of 130Te means that the peak in the summed electron energy spectrum expected from the neutrinoless mode will occur in an energy region of very little natural background. Once constructed, CUORE can also be used in searches for dark matter, solar axions, and other rare decay processes in nuclear physics

Additional details

Identifiers

Publishing Information

Journal Title
AIP Conference Proceedings
Journal Volume
610
Journal Issue
1
Journal Page Range
p. 978-979
ISSN
0094-243X
CODEN
APCPCS

Conference

Title
International nuclear physics conference on nuclear physics in the 21st century
Acronym
INPC 2001
Dates
30 Jul - 3 Aug 2001
Place
Berkeley, CA (United States)

Optional Information

Notes
(c) 2002 American Institute of Physics.