15–19 Jun 2026
Dipartimento di Fisica G. Occhialini, Università Degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca
Europe/Zurich timezone

Investigating the keV Energy Frontier with CUORE: Axion and Rare-Event Searches

16 Jun 2026, 16:30
20m
U3-03

U3-03

Oral contribution Topical Session 2 - DM

Speaker

Rebecca Kowalski

Description

The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) is the first tonne-scale experiment using cryogenic calorimeters. The detector is located underground at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso and consists of 988 TeO2 crystals operated in a dilution refrigerator at a base temperature of about 10 mK. Thanks to the large exposure, sharp energy resolution, segmented structure and radio-pure environment, CUORE provided the most sensitive exclusion limit of the neutrinoless double beta decay of 130Te. The same features offer a unique opportunity to search for the interaction of dark matter candidates in the CUORE crystals. By applying specialized data selection and noise rejection techniques to over 2 tonne·yr TeO2 exposure, we demonstrate effective event reconstruction at the keV-scale. We quantify the detector performance across the array, exploring how cryogenic conditions, vibrational isolation, and sensor properties influence sensitivity at low energies. These findings validate the use of ton-scale cryogenic calorimeters as broad-range rare event detectors, spanning from the keV to the MeV scale. In this contribution, we present recently published and new results on CUORE's potential for keV-scale energy physics—including searches for axion and WIMP interactions and rare nuclear decays.

Parallel session New Physics Searches: Dark Matter and High-Frequency Gravitational Waves

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