2022-06-16+Search for neutrinoless double β+EC decay of <sup>120</sup>Te with CUORE

Author: 

D.Q. Adams et al. (CUORE Collaboration)

Journal: 
Physical Review C
Year: 
2022
Volume: 
105
Page: 
6, 065504
DOI: 
10.1103/PhysRevC.105.065504
arXiv: 
2203.08684
Title: 

Search for neutrinoless double β+EC decay of 120Te with CUORE

Abstract (for collaboration papers): 

The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) is a large-scale cryogenic experiment searching for neutrinoless double-beta decay (0νββ) in 130Te. The CUORE detector is made of natural tellurium, providing the possibility of rare event searches on isotopes other than 130Te. In this work we describe a search for neutrinoless positron-emitting electron capture (β+EC) decay in 120Te with a total TeO2 exposure of 355.7 kg yr, corresponding to 0.2405 kg yr of 120Te. Albeit 0νββ with two final-state electrons represents the most promising channel, the emission of a positron and two 511-keV γ ’s make 0νβ+EC decay signature extremely clear. To fully exploit the potential offered by the detector modularity we include events with different topology and perform a simultaneous fit of five selected signal signatures. Using blinded data we extract a median exclusion sensitivity of 3.4 x 1022 yr at 90% credibility interval (C.I.). After unblinding we find no evidence of 0νβ+EC signal and set a 90% C.I. Bayesian lower limit of 2.9 x 1022 yr on the 120Te half-life. This result improves by an order of magnitude the existing limit from the combined analysis of CUORE-0 and Cuoricino.