The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) is designed to search for neutrinoless double beta decay of 130 Te with an array of 988 TeO 2 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 130 Te decay half-life of 9 × 10 25 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 −2 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 130 Te is expected.

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We report on the measurement of the twoneutrino double-beta decay half-life of 130 Te with the CUORE-0 detector. From an exposure of 33.4 kg year of TeO 2 , the half-life is determined to be T 2ν 1/2 = [8.2 ± 0.2 (stat.) ± 0.6 (syst.)] × 10 20 year. This result is obtained after a detailed reconstruction of the sources responsible for the CUORE-0 counting rate, with a specific study of those contributing to the 130 Te neutrinoless double-beta decay region of interest.

Neutrinoless double-beta (0νββ) decay is a hypothesized lepton-number-violating process that offers the only known means of asserting the possible Majorana nature of neutrino mass. The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) is an upcoming experiment designed to search for 0νββ decay of 130 Te using an array of 988 TeO 2 crystal bolometers operated at 10 mK. The detector will contain 206 kg of 130 Te and have an average energy resolution of 5 keV; the projected 0νββ decay half-life sensitivity after five years of live time is 1.6 × 10 26 y at 1σ (9.5 × 10 25 y at the 90% confidence level), which corresponds to an upper limit on the effective Majorana mass in the range 40-100 meV (50-130 meV). In this paper we review the experimental techniques used in CUORE as well as its current status and anticipated physics reach.