First results from the Cuoricino experiment

Bucci, C.; Arnaboldi, C.; Artusa, D. R.; Avignone, F. T.; Balata, M.; Bandac, I.; Barucci, M.; Brofferio, C.; Beeman, J.; Capelli, S.; Carbone, L.; Cebrian, S.; Cremonesi, O.; Creswick, R. J.; Farach, H. A.; Fascilla, A.; Fiorini, E.; Frossati, G.; Giuliani, ANDREA ERNESTO GUIDO; Gorla, P.; Haller, E. E.; Irastorza, I. G.; Mcdonald, R. J.; Morales, A.; Norman, E. B.; Nucciotti, A.; Olivieri, E.; Palmieri, V.; Pasca, E.; Pavan, Manuela; Pedretti, Marisa; Pessina, G.; Pirro, S.; Pobes, C.; Previtali, E.; Pyle, M.; Risegari, L.; Rosenfeld, C.; Sisti, M.; Smith, A. R.; Torres, L.; Ventura, G.; de Waard, A.

doi:10.1016/j.nima.2003.11.274

At the end of 2001 the Milano Double Beta Decay (MI-DBD) experiment on double beta decay of 130Te has been completed. The project Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE), proposed as a natural extension of MI-DBD, will be a tightly packed array of 1000 TeO2 bolometers, each being a cube 5 cm on a side with a mass of 790 g. The array will consists of 25 vertical towers, arranged in a square of 5 towers by 5 towers, each containing 10 layers of 4 crystals. A single CUORE tower has been constructed as a smaller scale experiment called CUORICINO. The technical feasibility of CUORE is now being tested in CUORICINO, running since few weeks. The CUORICINO experiment consists of 44 TeO2 detectors 5×5×5 cm3 and 18 TeO2 detectors 3×3×6 cm3 for a total mass of approximately 41 kg. An analysis of the detector performances is presented together with the new limit obtained on neutrinoless double beta decay of 130Te.