RUI: Analysis, Simulation, and Onsite Activities Contributing to the Search for Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay in Tellurium Using the CUORE Detector

该奖项将为一项为期三年的RUI拨款提供资金，以继续支持加州理工州立大学圣路易斯奥比斯波分校（calpoly）的CUORE（低温地下罕见事件观测站）实验的本科生研究项目。CUORE是下一代低温热测量实验，用于寻找碲中的中微子双β衰变。对这种衰变的观察表明，中微子是马约拉纳费米子，因此是它们自己的反粒子。它还分离了有效马约拉纳中微子质量的尺度，确定了适当的中微子质量层次。学生们将有机会在意大利阿塞吉的格兰萨索国家实验室亲自动手建造CUORE。此外，他们还将协助CUORE-0的转移活动，这是一个预定在2010年中期上线的CUORE中间单塔，旨在在2012年全面部署CUORE之前演示背景、分析和材料里程碑。在加州理工学院，学生们将通过运行GEANT4模拟来探索各种拟议的探测器校准方案，并根据Cuoricino（最近退役的CUORE原型）的现有数据对这些模拟进行测试。他们还将编写和利用软件从早期Cuoricino探测器获得的原始数据中获得核谱，并帮助软件开发处理CUORE和CUORE-0数据。关于更广泛的影响，像CUORE这样的实验汇集了低温、固态、粒子和核物理等许多实验和分析技术。这些技术的改进可能会在应用这些技术的其他科学和工程领域带来好处。中微子和地下物理都是激发想象力的学科，并通过加州理工学院科学与数学教育卓越中心和当地中央海岸天文学会为积极的公众宣传提供了一个独特的平台。

This award will provide funds for a three-year RUI grant for continued support for a program of undergraduate student research with the CUORE (Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events) experiment at the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly). CUORE is a next-generation cryogenic bolometry experiment to search for neutrinoless double beta decay in tellurium. The observation of this decay would indicate that neutrinos are Majorana fermions and therefore are their own antiparticle. It also isolates the scale for the effective Majorana neutrino mass, identifying the appropriate neutrino mass hierarchy. Students will have the exciting opportunity to participate in hands-on CUORE construction at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Assergi, Italy. In addition, they will assist with shift activity with CUORE-0, an intermediate single-tower of CUORE slated to be online by mid-2010, designed to demonstrate background, analysis, and material milestones before full CUORE deployment in 2012. Locally at Cal Poly, students will explore various proposed detector calibration schemes by running GEANT4 simulations, and test these simulations against existing data from Cuoricino, a recently decommissioned prototype of CUORE. They will also write and utilize software to obtain nuclear spectra from the raw data obtained by the earlier Cuoricino detector and help with software development to process CUORE and CUORE-0 data. Concerning Broader Impacts, experiments such as CUORE bring together many experimental and analytical techniques from low temperature, solid-state, particle, and nuclear physics. Improvements in these technologies may lead to benefits in other areas of science and engineering where they are applied. Both neutrino and underground physics are subjects that spark the imagination and provide a unique platform for vigorous public outreach through Cal Poly's Center for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Education and the local Central Coast Astronomical Society.