The CUPID-Mo experiment for neutrinoless double-beta decay: performance and prospects

• Published in: The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields Vol. 80; no. 1; pp. 1 - 15
• Main Authors: Armengaud, E., Augier, C., Barabash, A. S., Bellini, F., Benato, G., Benoît, A., Beretta, M., Bergé, L., Billard, J., Borovlev, Yu. A., Bourgeois, Ch, Briere, M., Brudanin, V. B., Camus, P., Cardani, L., Casali, N., Cazes, A., Chapellier, M., Charlieux, F., de Combarieu, M., Dafinei, I., Danevich, F. A., De Jesus, M., Dumoulin, L., Eitel, K., Elkhoury, E., Ferri, F., Fujikawa, B. K., Gascon, J., Gironi, L., Giuliani, A., Grigorieva, V. D., Gros, M., Guerard, E., Helis, D. L., Huang, H. Z., Huang, R., Johnston, J., Juillard, A., Khalife, H., Kleifges, M., Kobychev, V. V., Kolomensky, Yu. G., Konovalov, S. I., Leder, A., Loaiza, P., Ma, L., Makarov, E. P., de Marcillac, P., Marini, L., Marnieros, S., Misiak, D., Navick, X. -F., Nones, C., Novati, V., Olivieri, E., Ouellet, J. L., Pagnanini, L., Pari, P., Pattavina, L., Paul, B., Pavan, M., Peng, H., Pessina, G., Pirro, S., Poda, D. V., Polischuk, O. G., Previtali, E., Redon, Th, Rozov, S., Rusconi, C., Sanglard, V., Schäffner, K., Schmidt, B., Shen, Y., Shlegel, V. N., Siebenborn, B., Singh, V., Sorbino, S., Tomei, C., Tretyak, V. I., Umatov, V. I., Vagneron, L., Velázquez, M., Weber, M., Welliver, B., Winslow, L., Xue, M., Yakushev, E., Zolotarova, A. S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2020; Springer; Springer Nature B.V; Springer Verlag (Germany); SpringerOpen
• Subjects: 100Mo; Alpha particles; Alpha rays; Astronomy; Astrophysics and Cosmology; Beta decay; Bolometers; Cryogenic detector; Crystals; Detectors; Double-beta decay; Elementary Particles; Energy resolution; Enriched materials; Experiments; Hadrons; Heavy Ions; High Energy Physics - Experiment; High performance; Instrumentation and Detectors; Lithium molybdate; Low background; Measurement Science and Instrumentation; Nuclear Energy; Nuclear Experiment; Nuclear Physics; Particle identification; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS; Quantum Field Theories; Quantum Field Theory; Radiopurity; Radium 226; Regular Article - Experimental Physics; Scintillating bolometer; Scintillator; Sensors; String Theory; Cryogenic detector; crystal; Lithium molybdate; 100 Mo; molybdenum: oxygen; photon: yield; lithium; Scintillator; bibliography; Scintillating bolometer; Radiopurity; scintillation counter; calibration; molybdenum: nuclide; High performance; germanium: detector; Particle identification; Enriched materials; double-beta decay: (0neutrino); energy resolution; Double-beta decay; Low background; performance; bolometer; detector: design
• ISSN: 1434-6044; 1434-6052
• DOI: 10.1140/epjc/s10052-019-7578-6

CUPID-Mo is a bolometric experiment to search for neutrinoless double-beta decay (
0
ν
β
β
) of
100
Mo
. In this article, we detail the CUPID-Mo detector concept, assembly and installation in the Modane underground laboratory, providing results from the first datasets. The CUPID-Mo detector consists of an array of 20
100
Mo
-enriched 0.2 kg
Li
2
MoO
4
crystals operated as scintillating bolometers at
∼
20
mK
. The
Li
2
MoO
4
crystals are complemented by 20 thin Ge optical bolometers to reject
α
events by the simultaneous detection of heat and scintillation light. We observe a good detector uniformity and an excellent energy resolution of 5.3 keV (6.5 keV) FWHM at 2615 keV, in calibration (physics) data. Light collection ensures the rejection of
α
particles at a level much higher than 99.9% – with equally high acceptance for
γ
/
β
events – in the region of interest for
100
Mo
0
ν
β
β
. We present limits on the crystals’ radiopurity:
≤
3
μ
Bq/kg
of
226
Ra
and
≤
2
μ
Bq/kg
of
232
Th
. We discuss the science reach of CUPID-Mo, which can set the most stringent half-life limit on the
100
Mo
0
ν
β
β
decay in half-a-year’s livetime. The achieved results show that CUPID-Mo is a successful demonstrator of the technology developed by the LUMINEU project and subsequently selected for the CUPID experiment, a proposed follow-up of CUORE, the currently running first tonne-scale bolometric
0
ν
β
β
experiment.