New direct limit on neutrinoless double beta decay half-life of $^{128}$Te with CUORE
nucl-ex
/ Authors
D. Q. Adams, C. Alduino, K. Alfonso, F. T. Avignone, O. Azzolini, G. Bari, F. Bellini, G. Benato, M. Beretta, M. Biassoni
and 110 more authors
A. Branca, C. Brofferio, C. Bucci, J. Camilleri, A. Caminata, A. Campani, L. Canonica, X. G. Cao, C. Capelli, S. Capelli, L. Cappelli, L. Cardani, P. Carniti, N. Casali, E. Celi, D. Chiesa, M. Clemenza, S. Copello, O. Cremonesi, R. J. Creswick, A. D'Addabbo, I. Dafinei, F. Del Corso, S. Dell'Oro
/ Abstract
The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso of INFN in Italy is an experiment searching for neutrinoless double beta (0$νββ$) decay. Its main goal is to investigate this decay in $^{130}$Te, but its ton-scale mass and low background make CUORE sensitive to other rare processes as well. In this work, we present our first results on the search for \nbb decay of $^{128}$Te, the Te isotope with the second highest natural isotopic abundance. We find no evidence for this decay, and using a Bayesian analysis we set a lower limit on the $^{128}$Te \nbb decay half-life of T$_{1/2} > 3.6 \times 10^{24}$ yr (90\% CI). This represents the most stringent limit on the half-life of this isotope, improving by over a factor 30 the previous direct search results, and exceeding those from geochemical experiments for the first time.