KOR

e-Article

New Direct Limit on Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay Half-Life of Te128 with CUORE
Document Type
article
Source
Physical Review Letters. 129(22)
Subject
Nuclear and Plasma Physics
Particle and High Energy Physics
Physical Sciences
Half-Life
Bayes Theorem
Granisetron
CUORE Collaboration
Mathematical Sciences
Engineering
General Physics
Mathematical sciences
Physical sciences
Language
Abstract
The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso of INFN in Italy is an experiment searching for neutrinoless double beta (0νββ) decay. Its main goal is to investigate this decay in ^{130}Te, but its ton-scale mass and low background make CUORE sensitive to other rare processes as well. In this Letter, we present our first results on the search for 0νββ decay of ^{128}Te, the Te isotope with the second highest natural isotopic abundance. We find no evidence for this decay, and using a Bayesian analysis we set a lower limit on the ^{128}Te 0νββ decay half-life of T_{1/2}>3.6×10^{24}  yr (90% CI). This represents the most stringent limit on the half-life of this isotope, improving by over a factor of 30 the previous direct search results, and exceeding those from geochemical experiments for the first time.