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

本提案要求获得RUI资助，以支持加州理工州立大学圣路易斯奥比斯波分校（calpoly）的本科生研究Cuoricino实验项目。Cuoricino是CUORE（低温地下罕见事件观测站）的原型，是目前世界上最大的低温热辐射计和中微子双β衰变实验，并产生了具有竞争力的结果。对无中微子衰变的观察表明，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。主要目标是编写并利用软件从Cuoricino探测器记录的原始数据中获得核谱，并提取双β衰变寿命极限等物理信息。如果成功的话，这将为学生和合作提供另一种分析工作来检查结果，并帮助改进为Cuoricino编写的现有和正在开发的软件包。计划本科生也将有机会参加在意大利阿塞吉的格兰萨索国家实验室（LNGS）的实践Cuoricino转换活动。

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.