LPPC Seminar: Kenny Vetter (MIT)

Speaker: Kenny Vetter (MIT)

Title: Searching for Beyond Standard Model Processes with CUORE and CUPID

Abstract:
Neutrinos have puzzled physicists for decades despite significant progress in understanding them over the past thirty years, with many questions about their masses still unresolved. The discovery that neutrinos are indeed massive has revealed that while highly successful, the Standard Model of particle physics is incomplete. This has spurred the search for Beyond Standard Model processes that could fundamentally reshape our understanding of nature. One such process is neutrinoless double-beta (0νββ) decay, a theorized lepton number-violating phenomenon. Experimental evidence for 0νββ decay would definitively prove that neutrinos are Majorana fermions. The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) is conducting an ongoing search for 0νββ decay in 130Te. This talk will present the results from CUORE’s search using 2039 kg·yr of TeO₂ exposure, which set a lower limit on the half-life of T0ν1/2 > 3.8x1025 yr. The talk will also highlight the scientific goals of the next-generation CUPID experiment, the proposed upgrade to CUORE.

Zoom room: 97567885506 (Zoom link) / Password: 719144