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: neutrinoless double-beta decay. Examining a total exposure of 86.3 kg yr, characterized by an effective energy resolution of FWHM and a background in the region of interest of , we find no evidence for neutrinoless double-beta decay. Including systematic uncertainties, we place a lower limit on the decay half-life of (90% C.L.); the median statistical sensitivity of this search is . Combining this result with those of two earlier experiments, Cuoricino and CUORE-0, we find (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 , where the range reflects the nuclear matrix element estimates employed.
- Received 23 October 2017
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.132501
© 2018 American Physical Society
Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)
Viewpoint
The Hunt for No Neutrinos
Published 26 March 2018
Four experiments have demonstrated new levels of sensitivity to neutrinoless double-beta decay, a process whose existence would prove that neutrinos are their own antiparticles.
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