Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay Experiments With TeO2 Low-Temperature Detectors

Abstract

Neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ) is a powerful tool to investigate Lepton Number Violation (LNV), and the only practical way to assess the nature of the neutrinos. It can therefore provide unique information about the Physics Beyond the Standard Model. If observed, 0νββ would unambiguously demonstrate that neutrinos are Majorana particles and would provide a precise measurement of their mass. Among the many experimental techniques used in the search for this rare process, low-temperature detectors represent one of the most promising choices: they show an excellent energy resolution and can scale to very large masses. In this work, we review the most relevant experiments based on TeO 2 bolometers that have been developed and taking data at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS), Italy, since the early 90's. This 30-years-old effort has led to the design and construction of the CUORE detector, currently taking data at LNGS. The use of low-temperature detectors allows to study the 0νββ of 130 Te on both ground and excited states, and to explore different decay mechanisms ("standard" light neutrino exchange, Majoron emission, …). At the same time, the investigation of other rare nuclear physics processes is also possible, such as the two-neutrino double beta decay of 130 Te as well as the rare decays ( 120 Te and 123 Te). Next generation bolometric experiments anticipate top leading sensitivities. The corresponding challenges in the development of ton-scale, low background detectors are highlighted.

Lorentz violation effects in 2νββ decay

“…Non-zero values of (a (3) of ) 00 coefficient would produce small deviations in the shape of the energy spectra of electrons emitted in beta and double-beta decays [9]. Such investigations were recently performed in the DBD collaborations EXO [15], GERDA [16], SuperNEMO [17], CUORE [18,19] and CUPID-0 [20], and the non-observation of LIV effects resulted in constrains of the isotropic coefficientå [7]. However, in most of these analyses, the necessary theoretical ingredients were calculated with approximate (analytical) Fermi functions [21][22][23][24].…”

Improved Limit on Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay in Te130 with CUORE

“…CUORE [20,21] is a ton-scale cryogenic detector located at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) in Italy searching for 0νββ decay in 130 Te. The experiment consists of an array of 988 TeO 2 crystals operating as cryogenic calorimeters [22][23][24]-also denoted as bolometers-at a temperature of about 10 mK.…”

Astrophysical Neutrinos in Testing Lorentz Symmetry

“…These are performed in reactor [99][100][101][102], accelerator short- [103][104][105][106][107][108][109][110][111][112][113] and long-baseline [107,[114][115][116][117] experiments via energy and directional spectra of atmospheric neutrino oscillations [115,116,[118][119][120][121][122], solar neutrino investigations [123][124][125], beta decays [126][127][128][129][130][131][132][133][134][135][136], and kinematics [21,24,91,[137][138][139][140][141]…”