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

• Published in: Physical review letters Vol. 124; no. 12
• Main Authors: Adams, D. Q., Alduino, C., Alfonso, K., Avignone, F. T., Azzolini, O., Bellini, F., Benato, G., Biassoni, M., Branca, A., Bucci, C., Caminata, A., Campani, A., Canonica, L., Capelli, S., Cappelli, L., Cardani, L., Carniti, P., Chiesa, D., Chott, N., Clemenza, M., Copello, S., Cosmelli, C., Cremonesi, O., Creswick, R. J., D’Addabbo, A., D’Aguanno, D., Dafinei, I., Davis, C. J., Dell’Oro, S., Di Domizio, S., Dompè, V., Fang, D. Q., Fantini, G., Faverzani, M., Ferri, E., Ferroni, F., Fiorini, E., Freedman, S. J., Fujikawa, B. K., Giachero, A., Gironi, L., Giuliani, A., Gorla, P., Gutierrez, T. D., Han, K., Heeger, K. M., Huang, R. G., Huang, H. Z., Johnston, J., Keppel, G., Kolomensky, Yu G., Ligi, C., Ma, Y. G., Ma, L., Marini, L., Maruyama, R. H., Mei, Y., Moggi, N., Morganti, S., Napolitano, T., Nastasi, M., Nikkel, J., Nones, C., Norman, E. B., Novati, V., Nucciotti, A., Nutini, I., Ouellet, J. L., Pagliarone, C. E., Pagnanini, L., Pallavicini, M., Pavan, M., Pessina, G., Pettinacci, V., Pira, C., Pirro, S., Pozzi, S., Previtali, E., Puiu, A., Rosenfeld, C., Rusconi, C., Sakai, M., Sangiorgio, S., Schmidt, B., Scielzo, N. D., Singh, V., Sisti, M., Speller, D., Surukuchi, P. T., Taffarello, L., Terranova, F., Tomei, C., Vignati, M., Wang, B. S., Welliver, B., Wilson, J., Wilson, K., Winslow, L. A., Zanotti, L., Zimmermann, S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Physical Society (APS) 26-03-2020
• Subjects: Baryon & lepton number symmetries; Double beta decay; neutrinoless double beta decay; nuclear structure & decays; PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
• ISSN: 0031-9007; 1079-7114

We report new results from the search for neutrinoless double-beta decay in $^{130}$Te with the CUORE detector. This search benefits from a four-fold increase in exposure, lower trigger thresholds and analysis improvements relative to our previous results. We observe a background of $(1.38\pm0.07)\cdot10^{-2}$ counts$/($keV$\cdot$kg$\cdot$yr$)$ in the $0\nu\beta\beta$ decay region of interest and, with a total exposure of 372.5 kg$\cdot$yr, we attain a median exclusion sensitivity of $1.7\cdot10^{25}$ yr. We find no evidence for $0\nu\beta\beta$ decay and set a $90\%$ CI Bayesian lower limit of $3.2\cdot10^{25}$ yr on the $^{130}$Te half-life for this process. In the hypothesis that $0\nu\beta\beta$ decay is mediated by light Majorana neutrinos, this results in an upper limit on the effective Majorana mass of 75-350 meV, depending on the nuclear matrix elements used.