Eur. Phys. J. C (2010) 65: 359-361
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-009-1207-8

Special Article - Tools for Experiment and Theory

Cerenkov emission as a positive tag of double beta decays in bolometric experiments

Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Milano Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 3, 20133, Milano, Italy

^* e-mail: tommaso.tabarelli@cern.ch

Received: 17 August 2009
Revised: 26 October 2009
Published online: 19 November 2009

Abstract

Active background reduction in high resolution calorimeters is a promising approach to achieve ultimate sensitivity in neutrinoless double beta decay experiments. We propose Cerenkov emission from beta rays in bolometric crystals as a viable alternative to scintillation. This novel approach could broaden the range of materials of interest for calorimetric searches of the double beta decay. We discuss the optical properties of TeO₂ crystals, as a show case.