Speaker
Description
CUPID (CUORE Upgrade with Particle Identification) is a next-generation experiment that will be located at the LNGS and will serve as an observatory for rare events. Its main goal is to search for the neutrinoless double-beta decay of $^{100}$Mo. It will include an array of around 1600 cubic $45\times45\times45$ mm$^3$ Li$_2$MoO$_4$ enriched crystals operating as scintillating cryogenic calorimeters inside the CUORE cryostat and infrastructure, now nearing the end of its data taking. The crystals, kept at around $\sim$15 mK and equipped with NTD thermometers, will allow for excellent energy resolution spectrometric measurements (heat channel). Each crystal, facing two Ge light detectors, will enable an active, event-by-event particle identification strategy by measuring the scintillation light emitted during each particle interaction (light channel). This double (heat + light) readout system ensures extremely low backgrounds in the region of interest (ROI) around the Q-value of $^{100}$Mo ($\sim 3034$ keV), significantly reducing the dominant background from degraded alpha particles originating from the decay of radioactive contaminants, currently the main source of background in the ROI for the CUORE experiment. The collaboration has already successfully operated a few demonstrators and prototypes and some more will be built in the near future. The experimental activity to validate and characterize the Li$_2$MoO$_4$ crystals is now ongoing and will provide very useful inputs for the finalization of the design of the CUPID detector.emphasized text
