CUORE

A search for neutrinoless double beta decay

The CUORE experiment, located at the Gran Sasso National Laboratories (LNGS) of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) in Italy, has completed the installation of 19 "towers" that make up the detector. The delicate and precise operation, which required dedicated efforts of specially trained teams of scientists, engineers, and technicians, and logistical support from the entire collaboration, was completed on August 26.

"All of the 19 towers that make up the detector, consisting of 988 Tellurium oxide crystals and weighing nearly 750 kg (1650 lbs), are now suspended from the coldest point of the experiment cryostat," said Oliviero Cremonesi, the experiment’s spokesperson. "Now the collaboration is preparing for the finishing touches to the system, and will then proceed in the coming months with the closure of the cryostat, the cooldown, and the start of science operations."

CUORE is an experiment designed to study the properties of neutrinos. In particular, the experiment looks for a rare phenomenon called neutrinoless double beta decay. Revealing this process would demonstrate a Majorana nature of neutrinos, providing a possible explanation for the prevalence of matter over antimatter in the universe. The experiment is an international collaboration of about 165 scientists from thirty institutions in Italy, USA, China, and France. CUORE is supported jointly by the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN) and the Department of Energy’s Office of Science and National Science Foundation in the US.