The possibility that neutrinos may be their own antiparticles, unique among the known fundamental particles, arises from the symmetric theory of fermions proposed by Ettore Majorana in 19371. Given the profound consequences of such Majorana neutrinos, among which is a potential explanation for the matter–antimatter asymmetry of the universe via leptogenesis2, the Majorana nature of neutrinos commands intense experimental scrutiny globally; one of the primary experimental probes is neutrinoless double beta (0νββ) decay. Here we show results from the search for 0νββ decay of 130Te, using the latest advanced cryogenic calorimeters with the CUORE experiment3. CUORE, operating just 10 millikelvin above absolute zero, has pushed the state of the art on three frontiers: the sheer mass held at such ultralow temperatures, operational longevity, and the low levels of ionizing radiation emanating from the cryogenic infrastructure. We find no evidence for 0νββ decay and set a lower bound of the process half-life as 2.2 × 1025 years at a 90 per cent credibility interval. We discuss potential applications of the advances made with CUORE to other fields such as direct dark matter, neutrino and nuclear physics searches and large-scale quantum computing, which can benefit from sustained operation of large payloads in a low-radioactivity, ultralow-temperature cryogenic environment.

The CUPID Collaboration is designing a tonne-scale, background-free detector to search for double beta decay with sufficient sensitivity to fully explore the parameter space corresponding to the inverted neutrino mass hierarchy scenario. One of the CUPID demonstrators, CUPID-Mo, has proved the potential of enriched Li$$_{2}$$ 2 $$^{100}$$ 100 MoO$$_4$$ 4 crystals as suitable detectors for neutrinoless double beta decay search. In this work, we characterised cubic crystals that, compared to the cylindrical crystals used by CUPID-Mo, are more appealing for the construction of tightly packed arrays. We measured an average energy resolution of ($$6.7\pm 0.6$$ 6.7 ± 0.6 ) keV FWHM in the region of interest, approaching the CUPID target of 5 keV FWHM. We assessed the identification of $$\alpha $$ α particles with and without a reflecting foil that enhances the scintillation light collection efficiency, proving that the baseline design of CUPID already ensures a complete suppression of this $$\alpha $$ α -induced background contribution. We also used the collected data to validate a Monte Carlo simulation modelling the light collection efficiency, which will enable further optimisations of the detector.

A scintillating bolometer based on a large cubic Li 2 100 MoO 4 crystal (45 mm side) and a Ge wafer (scintillation detector) has been operated in the CROSS cryogenic facility at the Canfranc underground laboratory in Spain. The dual-readout detector is a prototype of the technology that will be used in the next-generation 0 2 experiment CUPID. The measurements were performed at 18 and 12 mK temperature in a pulse tube dilution refrigerator. This setup utilizes the same technology as the CUORE cryostat that will host CUPID and so represents an accurate estimation of the expected performance. The Li 2 100 MoO 4 bolometer shows a high energy resolution of 6 keV FWHM at the 2615 keV line. The detection of scintillation light for each event triggered by the Li 2 100 MoO 4 bolometer allowed for a full separation (∼8) between () and events above 2 MeV. The Li 2 100 MoO 4 crystal also shows a high internal radiopurity with 228 Th and 226 Ra activities of less than 3 and 8 Bq/kg, respectively. Taking also into account the advantage of a more compact and massive detector array, which can be made of cubic-shaped crystals (compared to the cylindrical ones), this test demonstrates the great potential of cubic Li 2 100 MoO 4 scintillating bolometers for high-sensitivity searches for the 100 Mo 0 2 decay in CROSS and CUPID projects.

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