2024-12-12 + Search for Fractionally Charged Particles with CUORE

Author: 

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

Journal: 
Physics Review Letters
Year: 
2024
Volume: 
133
Page: 
241801
DOI: 
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.241801
arXiv: 
2406.12380v1
Title: 

Search for Fractionally Charged Particles with CUORE

Abstract (for collaboration papers): 

The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) is a detector array comprised by 988 5cm×5cm×5cm TeO2 crystals held below 20 mK, primarily searching for neutrinoless double-beta decay in 130Te. Unprecedented in size amongst cryogenic calorimetric experiments, CUORE provides a promising setting for the study of exotic through-going particles. Using the first tonne-year of CUORE's exposure, we perform a search for hypothesized fractionally charged particles (FCPs), which are well-motivated by various Standard Model extensions and would have suppressed interactions with matter. No excess of FCP candidate tracks is observed over background, setting leading limits on the underground FCP flux with charges between e/24−e/5 at 90% confidence level. Using the low background environment and segmented geometry of CUORE, we establish the sensitivity of tonne-scale sub-Kelvin detectors to diverse signatures of new physics.