Speaker
Description
The search for neutrinoless double-beta decay (0νββ) represents one of the most powerful experimental approaches to investigate physics beyond the Standard Model. A confirmed observation would imply the violation of lepton number conservation and establish the Majorana character of neutrinos. Motivated by these implications, several efforts have sought to increase the sensitivity on the 0νββ process, with the next generation of experiments aiming to fully cover the inverted mass-ordering region by reaching sensitivities exceeding 10²⁷ years.
Cryogenic calorimeters operated at millikelvin temperatures have emerged as a particularly effective technology for rare-event searches, combining excellent energy resolution, large active masses, and intrinsically low background levels. This technique forms the basis of CUPID (CUORE Upgrade with Particle IDentification), a next-generation experiment designed to search for 0νββ of 100Mo. CUPID exploits scintillating Li₂MoO₄ crystals enriched in 100Mo, benefiting directly from the extensive experience accumulated with CUORE, the first tonne-scale bolometric experiment, currently running at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) in Italy.
The CUPID detector will be installed in the existing CUORE cryostat and will comprise an array of 1596 Li₂MoO₄ scintillating bolometers coupled to 1710 dedicated light detectors. By simultaneously measuring the thermal and scintillation responses of each crystal, CUPID achieves efficient particle discrimination, enabling the suppression of α-induced backgrounds that limited the sensitivity of earlier bolometric experiments. This dual-channel readout is essential for achieving the ultra-low background conditions required to explore the inverted-ordering region.
Substantial coordinated R&D has demonstrated the feasibility of the CUPID concept and established a robust production chain for enriched crystals, sensors, and detector components. Ongoing work focuses on completing the detector design, validating and improving its performance. This poster presents the current status of the CUPID project and outline the key upcoming milestones toward the construction and operation of the experiment.