CUORE/CUORICINO and Majorana: Next Generation Double-Beta Decay Experiments

University South Carolina Research Foundation, Columbia SC

Investigators

Abstract

PROPOSAL NUMBER: 0758544 INSTITUTION: University of South Carolina Research Foundation NSF PROGRAM: PHY - PARTICLE ASTROPHYSICS PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Avignone, Frank T. TITLE: CUORE/CUORICINO and Majorana: Next Generation Double-Beta Decay Experiments ABSTRACT The time for a comprehensive program in neutrino-less double-beta (NLDB) decay is now. One principal conclusion of the APS Multidivisional Study stated: ?We recommend, as a high priority, a phased program of sensitive searches for neutrinoless nuclear double-beta decay.? NLDB decay is the only practical way to determine if neutrinos are their own antiparticles and it is the most sensitive test of lepton-number conservation, an important symmetry in elementary-particle physics. In addition, if neutrinos are Majorana particles, an accurate measurement of the NLDB-decay half-life might well be possible; it would yield the effective Majorana mass of the electron neutrino which, when combined with the results of neutrino oscillation experiments, would determine all three neutrino-mass eigenvalues. This award will provide funds to support the USC group to continue their involvement in the Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE), an array of 988 TeO2 bolometers, at Gran Sasso (LNGS), Italy. CUORE is the successor to CUORICINO, currently the most sensitive NLDB decay experiment in operation. The USC team is responsible for the procurement and production of the complete CUORE electronic system starting at the detector and ending at the input of data acquisition system. The PI is the U.S. Task Coordinator for the construction of CUORE-0, the first of the 19 towers of CUORE. It will serve as a test of the specific construction procedures of CUORE, and will operate in the CUORICINO cryostat. This will yield physics results beyond those of CUORICINO. For Broader Impacts, these proposed tasks provide excellent Ph.D. research topics. The PI?s low-background experiments in NLDB decay and Cold Dark Matter have provided dissertation topics for many students, with more research students currently at various stages of their programs.