Nuclear Particle Astrophysics (NPA) Seminar: “Measurement of the two-neutrino double-beta decay half-life of 130Te with the CUORE-0 experiment” Stefano Pozzi Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Milano

Event time: 
Thursday, November 16, 2017 - 12:00pm to 1:00pm
Location: 
Wright Lab (WL), 216 See map
272 Whitney Avenue
New Haven, CT 06511
Event description: 

The CUORE experiment, located at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Italy, has among its main goals the search for neutrinoless double-beta decay (0υββ) in 130Te. The CUORE detector consists of 988 TeO2 crystals, arranged in 19 towers. The first CUORE-like tower, named CUORE-0, was operated as an independent experiment from 2013 to 2015.

CUORE-0 not only proved to be a competitive 0υββ search, but it also allowed the precise measurement of another rare decay, the two-neutrino double-beta decay (2υββ) of 130Te. This decay produces a continuous energy spectrum between 0 and its Q-value, at 2527 keV, and this contribution has to be disengtangled from the background caused by natural radioactivity in order to be measured.

I’ll present the analysis techniques used to reconstruct the full CUORE-0 spectrum, combining the 2υββ contribution to the ones produced by the most relevant sources of radioactivity. This analysis led to the most accurate value of the 2υββ half-life in 130Te and is currently being enhanced to produce an even better result in CUORE.