RUI: A Search for Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay in Tellurium Using the Cuoricino Detector

RUI：使用 Cuoricino 探测器寻找碲中的无中微子双贝塔衰变

• 批准号: 0653284
• 负责人: Thomas Gutierrez
• 金额: $ 21.3万
• 依托单位: California Polytechnic State University Foundation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-05-15 至 2010-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0653284&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RUI; Search; Neutrinoless; Double; Beta

This proposal requests an RUI grant to support a program of undergraduate student research with the Cuoricino experiment at the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly). Cuoricino is a prototype for CUORE (Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events) and is currently the largest operating cryogenic bolometer and neutrinoless double beta decay experiment in the world producing competitive results. The observation of neutrinoless beta decays would indicate that neutrinos are Majorana fermions and, therefore, are their own anti-particles. Many reports indicate that this determination would be a result of great importance.The main focus of undergraduate student activity at Cal Poly will be to perform physics analysis starting with raw Cuoricino data. The primary objective will be to write and utilize software to obtain nuclear spectra from the raw data recorded by the Cuoricino detector and extract physics information such as the double beta decay lifetime limit. If successful, this will benefit the students as well as the collaboration by providing an alternative analysis effort to examine the results and help refine existing and developing software packages being written for Cuoricino. It is planned that undergraduate students will also have the opportunity to participate in hands-on Cuoricino shift activity at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory (LNGS) in Assergi, Italy.

该提案请求 RUI 拨款，以支持加州理工州立大学圣路易斯奥比斯波分校（加州理工大学）的 Cuoricino 实验本科生研究项目。 Cuoricino 是 CUORE（罕见事件低温地下观测站）的原型，目前是世界上最大的运行低温辐射热测量计和无中微子双 β 衰变实验，产生了具有竞争力的结果。 对无中微子β衰变的观察表明，中微子是马约拉纳费米子，因此是它们自己的反粒子。许多报告表明，这一决定将是一个非常重要的结果。加州理工学院本科生活动的主要焦点将是从原始 Cuoricino 数据开始进行物理分析。主要目标是编写和利用软件从 Cuoricino 探测器记录的原始数据中获取核光谱，并提取物理信息，例如双 β 衰变寿命极限。如果成功，这将通过提供替代分析工作来检查结果并帮助完善为 Cuoricino 编写的现有和正在开发的软件包，从而使学生以及合作受益。计划本科生还将有机会参加位于意大利阿塞尔吉的格兰萨索国家实验室 (LNGS) 的 Cuoricino 实践轮班活动。