Eur. Phys. J. C (2014) 74: 3096
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-014-3096-8

Regular Article - Experimental Physics

Exploring the neutrinoless double beta decay in the inverted neutrino hierarchy with bolometric detectors

¹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, 29208, USA
² INFN-Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, 67010, Assergi, L’Aquila, Italy
³ INFN-Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro, 35020, Legnaro, 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 INFN-Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, 00044, Frascati, Rome, Italy
¹⁷ Centre de Spectrométrie Nucléaire et de Spectrométrie de Masse, Orsay Campus, 91405, Orsay, France
¹⁸ Physics Department, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA, 93407, USA
¹⁹ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
²⁰ Department of Physics, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06520, USA
²¹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA
²² Physics Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
²³ Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, 94550, USA
²⁴ Laboratorio de Fisica Nuclear y Astroparticulas, Universidad de Zaragoza, 50009, Saragossa, Spain
²⁵ Service de Physique des Particules, CEA/Saclay, 91191, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
²⁶ Department of Nuclear Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
²⁷ Nuclear Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
²⁸ INFN-Sezione di Padova, 35131, Padua, Italy
²⁹ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Firenze, 50125, Florence, Italy
³⁰ INFN-Sezione di Firenze, 50125, Florence, Italy
³¹ SUPA, Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh, EH9 3HJ, UK
³² Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Bologna, 40127, Bologna, Italy

^* e-mail: cuore-spokesperson@lngs.infn.it

Received: 23 April 2014
Accepted: 22 September 2014
Published online: 15 October 2014

Abstract

Neutrinoless double beta decay () is one of the most sensitive probes for physics beyond the Standard Model, providing unique information on the nature of neutrinos. In this paper we review the status and outlook for bolometric  decay searches. We summarize recent advances in background suppression demonstrated using bolometers with simultaneous readout of heat and light signals. We simulate several configurations of a future CUORE-like bolometer array which would utilize these improvements and present the sensitivity reach of a hypothetical next-generation bolometric  experiment. We demonstrate that a bolometric experiment with the isotope mass of about 1 ton is capable of reaching the sensitivity to the effective Majorana neutrino mass () of order 10–20 meV, thus completely exploring the so-called inverted neutrino mass hierarchy region. We highlight the main challenges and identify priorities for an R&D program addressing them.