Study of Rare Nuclear Processes with CUORE

TL;DR

CUORE is a large-scale TeO2 detector that has set leading limits on neutrinoless double beta decay and aims to explore various rare nuclear and particle physics processes, building on past experimental successes.

Contribution

This paper reviews CUORE's recent achievements and future prospects in studying rare nuclear processes using TeO2 bolometers, highlighting its role in advancing the field.

Findings

CUORE set the most sensitive limit on neutrinoless double beta decay half-life.

CUORE will investigate rare decays and processes like dark matter interactions.

Past experiments with TeO2 bolometers have achieved significant milestones.

Abstract

TeO2 bolometers have been used for many years to search for neutrinoless double beta decay in 130-Te. CUORE, a tonne-scale TeO2 detector array, recently published the most sensitive limit on the half-life, $T_{1/2}^{0\nu} > 1.5 \times 10^{25}\,$yr, which corresponds to an upper bound of $140-400$~meV on the effective Majorana mass of the neutrino. While it makes CUORE a world-leading experiment looking for neutrinoless double beta decay, it is not the only study that CUORE will contribute to in the field of nuclear and particle physics. As already done over the years with many small-scale experiments, CUORE will investigate both rare decays (such as the two-neutrino double beta decay of 130-Te and the hypothesized electron capture in 123-Te), and rare processes (e.g., dark matter and axion interactions). This paper describes some of the achievements of past experiments that used TeO2 bolometers, and perspectives for CUORE.