The CUPID-0 experiment reports a new measurement of two-neutrino double beta decay of Se-82 isotope, obtaining the most precise result among all the investigated isotopes. The work has been published in the last issue of Physics Review Letters (link).
The search for Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay is a crucial part of our quest to understand the deepest mysteries of the Universe. The observation of this phenomenon would require a paradigm shift from the Standard Model of Elementary Particles and would reshape our understanding of the fundamental building blocks of matter. In the past decades, big experimental efforts were committed to the search for 0νββ allowing the existing detectors to reach sensitivities of the or- der of 1025 − 1026 yr on its half-life. Nowadays, none of them has ever observed such decay, however, the development of technologies able to reach excellent sensitivities led to outstanding precision measurements of two-neutrino double beta decay.
Combining the statistics collected during the two scientific runs, performed between 2017 and 2020, CUPID-0 improves the modelling of the experimental data in a wide energy range, thus reducing the systematics uncertainties on the background source identification. The enhanced sensitivity allows to perform the most precise measurement of the two-neutrino double beta decay. Such accuracy measurements are part of the effort for data-driven improvement of nuclear models that is fundamental for understanding the nuclear dynamics underlying the neutrinoless decay process.
“The scientific achievement of these years conducted mainly by young researchers, said Stefano Pirro Spokesperson of CUPID-0 collaboration, combined with our long and outstanding expertise on rare event searches has put down an excellent basis to realize the strategies for the future”
CUPID-0 is the first demonstrator of scintillating bolometer technology in the field of neutrinoless double decay search, laying the foundation for the next-generation CUPID experiment.
REIS - 07.12.2023