https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-014-2956-6
Regular Article - Experimental Physics
Initial performance of the CUORE-0 experiment
1
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, 29208, USA
2
INFN-Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, Assergi, 67010 , L’Aquila, Italy
3
INFN-Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro, Legnaro, 35020 , Padua, Italy
4
Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, CA , 94720, USA
5
Nuclear Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
6
INFN-Sezione di Bologna, 40127 , Bologna, Italy
7
Materials Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
8
Dipartimento di Fisica, Sapienza Università di Roma, 00185, Rome, Italy
9
INFN-Sezione di Roma, 00185 , Rome, Italy
10
INFN-Sezione di Genova, 16146 , Genoa, Italy
11
Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Milano-Bicocca, 20126 , Milan, Italy
12
INFN-Sezione di Milano Bicocca, 20126 , Milan, Italy
13
Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics (Chinese Academy of Sciences), Shanghai, 201800, China
14
Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, 53706, USA
15
Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Genova, 16146 , Genoa, Italy
16
Centre de Spectrométrie Nucléaire et de Spectrométrie de Masse, 91405 , Orsay Campus, France
17
Physics Department, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA , 93407, USA
18
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
19
Department of Physics, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06520, USA
20
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA
21
Physics Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
22
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, 94550, USA
23
Laboratorio de Fisica Nuclear y Astroparticulas, Universidad de Zaragoza, 50009 , Saragossa, Spain
24
Service de Physique des Particules, CEA/Saclay, 91191 , Gif-sur-Yvette, France
25
Department of Nuclear Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
26
EH&S Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
27
INFN-Sezione di Padova, 35131 , Padua, Italy
28
Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Firenze, 50125 , Florence, Italy
29
INFN-Sezione di Firenze, 50125 , Florence, Italy
30
Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Bologna, 40127 , Bologna, Italy
* e-mail: cuore-spokeperson@lngs.infn.it
Received:
11
February
2014
Accepted:
3
July
2014
Published online:
1
August
2014
CUORE-0 is a cryogenic detector that uses an array of tellurium dioxide bolometers to search for neutrinoless double-beta decay of 
. We present the first data analysis with 
of total 
exposure focusing on background measurements and energy resolution. The background rates in the neutrinoless double-beta decay region of interest (2.47 to 
) and in the 
background-dominated region (2.70 to 
) have been measured to be 
and 
, respectively. The latter result represents a factor of 6 improvement from a predecessor experiment, Cuoricino. The results verify our understanding of the background sources in CUORE-0, which is the basis of extrapolations to the full CUORE detector. The obtained energy resolution (full width at half maximum) in the region of interest is 
. Based on the measured background rate and energy resolution in the region of interest, CUORE-0 half-life sensitivity is expected to surpass the observed lower bound of Cuoricino with one year of live time.
© SIF and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2014
