title: TeO[Formula: see text] bolometers with Cherenkov signal tagging: towards next-generation neutrinoless double-beta decay experiments.
abstract: CUORE, an array of 988 TeO[Formula: see text] bolometers, is about to be one of the most sensitive experiments searching for neutrinoless double-beta decay. Its sensitivity could be further improved by removing the background from [Formula: see text] radioactivity. A few years ago it was pointed out that the signal from [Formula: see text]s can be tagged by detecting the emitted Cherenkov light, which is not produced by [Formula: see text]s. In this paper we confirm this possibility. For the first time we measured the Cherenkov light emitted by a CUORE crystal, and found it to be 100 eV at the [Formula: see text]-value of the decay. To completely reject the [Formula: see text] background, we compute that one needs light detectors with baseline noise below 20 eV RMS, a value which is 3-4 times smaller than the average noise of the bolometric light detectors we are using. We point out that an improved light detector technology must be developed to obtain TeO[Formula: see text] bolometric experiments able to probe the inverted hierarchy of neutrino masses.
authors.affiliation: INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, 67010 Assergi (AQ), Italy.|Dipartimento di Scienze Fisiche e Chimiche, Università degli studi dell'Aquila, 67100 Coppito (AQ), Italy.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Casali
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Fisica, Sapienza Università di Roma, 00185 Rome, Italy.|INFN Sezione di Roma, P.le A. Moro 2, 00185 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vignati
authors.affiliation: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720 USA.
authors.forename: J W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Beeman
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Fisica, Sapienza Università di Roma, 00185 Rome, Italy.|INFN Sezione di Roma, P.le A. Moro 2, 00185 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bellini
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Fisica, Sapienza Università di Roma, 00185 Rome, Italy.|INFN Sezione di Roma, P.le A. Moro 2, 00185 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cardani
authors.affiliation: INFN Sezione di Roma, P.le A. Moro 2, 00185 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Dafinei
authors.affiliation: INFN Sezione di Genova, 16146 Genoa, Italy.|Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Genova, 16146 Genoa, Italy.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Di Domizio
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Fisica, Sapienza Università di Roma, 00185 Rome, Italy.|INFN Sezione di Roma, P.le A. Moro 2, 00185 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ferroni
authors.affiliation: INFN Sezione di Milano Bicocca, 20126 Milan, Italy.|Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Milano Bicocca, 20126 Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gironi
authors.affiliation: INFN Gran Sasso Science Institute, 67100 L'Aquila, Italy.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nagorny
authors.affiliation: INFN Sezione di Roma, P.le A. Moro 2, 00185 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Orio
authors.affiliation: INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, 67010 Assergi (AQ), Italy.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Pattavina
authors.affiliation: INFN Sezione di Milano Bicocca, 20126 Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pessina
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Fisica, Sapienza Università di Roma, 00185 Rome, Italy.|INFN Sezione di Roma, P.le A. Moro 2, 00185 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Piperno
authors.affiliation: INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, 67010 Assergi (AQ), Italy.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pirro
authors.affiliation: INFN Sezione di Milano Bicocca, 20126 Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rusconi
authors.affiliation: INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, 67010 Assergi (AQ), Italy.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Schäffner
authors.affiliation: INFN Sezione di Roma, P.le A. Moro 2, 00185 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tomei