Eur. Phys. J. C (2017) 77: 543
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-017-5080-6

Regular Article - Experimental Physics

The projected background for the CUORE experiment

¹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, 29208, USA
² Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA
³ INFN-Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, Assergi, 67100, L’Aquila, Italy
⁴ INFN-Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro, Legnaro, 35020, Padua, Italy
⁵ Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
⁶ Nuclear Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
⁷ INFN-Sezione di Bologna, 40127, Bologna, Italy
⁸ Materials Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
⁹ Dipartimento di Fisica, Sapienza Università di Roma, 00185, Rome, Italy
¹⁰ INFN-Sezione di Roma, 00185, Rome, Italy
¹¹ INFN-Sezione di Genova, 16146, Genoa, Italy
¹² Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Milano-Bicocca, 20126, Milan, Italy
¹³ INFN-Sezione di Milano Bicocca, 20126, Milan, Italy
¹⁴ INFN-Sezione di Padova, 35131, Padua, Italy
¹⁵ Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
¹⁶ Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Shanghai, 201800, China
¹⁷ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Genova, 16146, Genoa, Italy
¹⁸ Department of Physics, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06520, USA
¹⁹ INFN-Gran Sasso Science Institute, 67100, L’Aquila, Italy
²⁰ Dipartimento di Scienze Fisiche e Chimiche, Università dell’Aquila, 67100, L’Aquila, Italy
²¹ INFN-Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, Frascati, 00044, Rome, Italy
²² CSNSM, Univ. Paris-Sud, CNRS/IN2P3, Universit Paris-Saclay, 91405, Orsay, France
²³ Physics Department, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA, 93407, USA
²⁴ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
²⁵ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China
²⁶ Physics Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
²⁷ Laboratorio de Fisica Nuclear y Astroparticulas, Universidad de Zaragoza, 50009, Zaragoza, Spain
²⁸ Dipartimento di Scienze per la Qualità della Vita, Alma Mater Studiorum-Università di Bologna, 47921, Bologna, Italy
²⁹ Service de Physique des Particules, CEA/Saclay, 91191, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
³⁰ Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, 94550, USA
³¹ Department of Nuclear Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
³² Center for Neutrino Physics, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, 24061, USA
³³ Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile e Meccanica, Università degli Studi di Cassino e del Lazio Meridionale, 03043, Cassino, Italy
³⁴ Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, 53706, USA
³⁵ SUPA, Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh, EH9 3HJ, UK
³⁶ Engineering Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
³⁷ Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Alma Mater Studiorum-Università di Bologna, 40127, Bologna, Italy

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

Received: 28 April 2017
Accepted: 11 July 2017
Published online: 14 August 2017

Abstract

The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) is designed to search for neutrinoless double beta decay of Te with an array of 988 TeO bolometers operating at temperatures around 10 mK. The experiment is currently being commissioned in Hall A of Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, Italy. The goal of CUORE is to reach a 90% C.L. exclusion sensitivity on the Te decay half-life of 9 10 years after 5 years of data taking. The main issue to be addressed to accomplish this aim is the rate of background events in the region of interest, which must not be higher than 10 counts/keV/kg/year. We developed a detailed Monte Carlo simulation, based on results from a campaign of material screening, radioassays, and bolometric measurements, to evaluate the expected background. This was used over the years to guide the construction strategies of the experiment and we use it here to project a background model for CUORE. In this paper we report the results of our study and our expectations for the background rate in the energy region where the peak signature of neutrinoless double beta decay of Te is expected.