Feasibility study of dark matter searches with the CUORE experiment

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential of the CUORE experiment, primarily designed for neutrinoless double beta decay, to also search for dark matter interactions by lowering energy detection thresholds and analyzing nuclear recoils.

Contribution

It introduces a new trigger and pulse shape algorithm enabling dark matter searches with CUORE's bolometers, expanding its scientific scope beyond neutrino physics.

Findings

Preliminary results from CUORE-like crystals demonstrate lowered energy thresholds.

The developed algorithms effectively identify nuclear recoils at keV energies.

CUORE shows promising potential for dark matter detection through annual modulation analysis.

Abstract

CUORE will be a 1 ton experiment made of about 1000 TeO$_2$ bolometers. It will probe the neutrinoless double beta decay (0$\nu$DBD) of $^{130}$Te, a tool to test the neutrino nature and mass. The excellent energy resolution and the low background of these detectors will make CUORE a leading experiment in this field, improving the sensitivity to the half-life of 0$\nu$DBD by more than an order of magnitude. Bolometric detectors, however, are also sensitive to nuclear recoils and can be used to search for dark matter interactions. In principle CUORE, thanks to its mass, could look for an annual modulation of the counting rate at low energies. We developed a trigger and a pulse shape identification algorithm, that allow to lower the energy threshold down to the few keV region. We present the preliminary results obtained on an array made of four CUORE-like crystals, and the prospects for a dark matter search in CUORE.