Speaker
Description
Summary
The neutrinoless double beta decay (0nDBD) is a hypothesized nuclear transition that violates the conservation of the total lepton number. Its prized observation would have important implications in the explanation of the asymmetry matter/anti-matter, and it would demonstrate that neutrinos have a Majorana mass component.
The CUORE collaboration is now completing the commissioning of a ton-scale detector based on cryogenic calorimeters, which is expected to become soon one of the most sensitive detectors searching for 0nDBD.
Next generation projects aim at increasing the sensitivity on 0nDBD by at least an order of magnitude with respect to CUORE. The sensitivity of this experiment is limited by an intrinsic background due to alpha particles, that are produced by contaminations of the material that constitute the detector itself.
We present an upgrade of the calorimetric technique, based on the simultaneous read-out of heat and scintillation light, that will allow to perform particle identification and disentangle electrons (possible signal) from the dominant alpha background. We assembled a first medium-scale prototype of this technology, which is now being commissioned in the underground Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (Italy). Given the high number of 0nDBD emitter and the low expected background, this prototype has also an interesting physics potential in the search for 0nDBD.
In this contribution we describe the detector, we present our preliminary results, and we discuss the perspectives in view of a next generation experiment.
