STATUS OF THE CUORE EXPERIMENT

Abstract

The CUORE (Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events) experiment will search for neutrinoless double beta decay of 130Te, a rare nuclear process that, if observed, would demonstrate the Majorana nature of the neutrino and enable measurements of the effective Majorana mass. The CUORE setup consists of an array of 988 tellurium dioxide crystals, operated as bolometers, with a total mass of about 200 kg of 130Te. The experiment is under construction at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Italy. As a first step towards CUORE, the first tower (CUORE-0) has been assembled and will soon be in operation.