Exploring the keV-scale physics potential of CUORE
Abstract
We present the analysis techniques developed to explore the keV-scale energy region of the CUORE experiment, based on more than 2 tonne yr of data collected over 5 years. By prioritizing a stricter selection over a larger exposure, we are able to optimize data selection for thresholds at 10 keV and 3 keV with 691 kg yr and 11 kg yr of data, respectively. We study how the performance varies among the 988-detector array with different detector characteristics and data taking conditions. We achieve an average baseline resolution of 2.54 0.14 keV FWHM and 1.18 0.02 keV FWHM for the data selection at 10 keV and 3 keV, respectively. The analysis methods employed reduce the overall background by about an order of magnitude, reaching 2.06 0.05 counts/(keV kg days) and 16 2 counts/(keV kg days) at the thresholds of 10 keV and 3 keV. We evaluate for the first time the near-threshold reconstruction efficiencies of the CUORE experiment, and find these to be 26 4 \% and 50 2 \% at 3 keV and 10 keV, respectively. This analysis provides crucial insights into rare decay studies, new physics searches, and keV-scale background modeling with CUORE. We demonstrate that tonne-scale cryogenic calorimeters can operate across a wide energy range, from keV to MeV, establishing their scalability as versatile detectors for rare event and dark matter physics. These findings also inform the optimization of future large mass cryogenic calorimeters to enhance the sensitivity to low-energy phenomena.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2505.23955,
title = {Exploring the keV-scale physics potential of CUORE},
author = {CUORE Collaboration and D. Q. Adams and C. Alduino and K. Alfonso and A. Armatol and F. T. Avignone and O. Azzolini and G. Bari and F. Bellini and G. Benato and M. Beretta and M. Biassoni and A. Branca and C. Brofferio and C. Bucci and J. Camilleri and A. Caminata and A. Campani and J. Cao and C. Capelli and S. Capelli and L. Cappelli and L. Cardani and P. Carniti and N. Casali and E. Celi and D. Chiesa and M. Clemenza and S. Copello and A. Cosoli and O. Cremonesi and R. J. Creswick and A. DAddabbo and I. Dafinei and S. DellOro and S. Di Domizio and S. Di Lorenzo and T. Dixon and D. Q. Fang and M. Faverzani and E. Ferri and F. Ferroni and E. Fiorini and M. A. Franceschi and S. J. Freedman and S. H. Fu and B. K. Fujikawa and S. Ghislandi and A. Giachero and M. Girola and L. Gironi and A. Giuliani and P. Gorla and C. Gotti and P. V. Guillaumon and T. D. Gutierrez and K. Han and E. V. Hansen and K. M. Heeger and D. L. Helis and H. Z. Huang and M. T. Hurst and G. Keppel and Yu. G. Kolomensky and R. Kowalski and R. Liu and L. Ma and Y. G. Ma and L. Marini and R. H. Maruyama and D. Mayer and Y. Mei and M. N. Moore and T. Napolitano and M. Nastasi and C. Nones and E. B. Norman and A. Nucciotti and I. Nutini and T. ODonnell and M. Olmi and B. T. Oregui and S. Pagan and C. E. Pagliarone and L. Pagnanini and M. Pallavicini and L. Pattavina and M. Pavan and G. Pessina and V. Pettinacci and C. Pira and S. Pirro and E. G. Pottebaum and S. Pozzi and E. Previtali and A. Puiu and S. Quitadamo and A. Ressa and C. Rosenfeld and B. Schmidt and R. Serino and A. Shaikina and V. Sharma and V. Singh and M. Sisti and D. Speller and P. T. Surukuchi and L. Taffarello and C. Tomei and A. Torres and J. A. Torres and K. J. Vetter and M. Vignati and S. L. Wagaarachchi and R. Wang and B. Welliver and J. Wilson and K. Wilson and L. A. Winslow and F. Xie and T. Zhu and S. Zimmermann and S. Zucchelli},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2505.23955},
year = {2026}
}