Search for Neutrinoless $β^+EC$ Decay of $^{120}$Te with CUORE
Creators: name: Adams, D. Q.
name: Alduino, C.
name: Alfonso, K.
name: Avignone, F. T.
name: Azzolini, O.
name: Bari, G.
name: Bellini, F.
name: Benato, G.
name: Beretta, M.
name: Biassoni, M.
name: Branca, A.
name: Brofferio, C.
name: Bucci, C.
name: Camilleri, J.
name: Caminata, A.
name: Campani, A.
name: Canonica, L.
name: Cao, X. G.
name: Capelli, C.
name: Capelli, S.
name: Cappelli, L.
name: Cardani, L.
name: Carniti, P.
name: Casali, N.
name: Celi, E.
name: Chiesa, D.
name: Clemenza, M.
name: Copello, S.
name: Cremonesi, O.
name: Creswick, R. J.
name: D'Addabbo, A.
name: Dafinei, I.
name: Del Corso, F.
name: Dell'Oro, S.
name: Di Domizio, S.
name: Di Lorenzo, S.
name: Dompè, V.
name: Fang, D. Q.
name: Fantini, G.
name: Faverzani, M.
name: Ferri, E.
name: Ferroni, F.
name: Fiorini, E.
name: Franceschi, M. A.
name: Freedman, S. J.
name: Fu, S. H.
name: Fujikawa, B. K.
name: Ghislandi, S.
name: Giachero, A.
name: Gianvecchio, A.
name: Gironi, L.
name: Giuliani, A.
name: Gorla, P.
name: Gotti, C.
name: Gutierrez, T. D.
name: Han, K.
name: Hansen, E. V.
name: Heeger, K. M.
name: Huang, R. G.
name: Huang, H. Z.
name: Johnston, J.
name: Keppel, G.
name: Kolomensky, Yu. G.
name: Kowalski, R.
name: Ligi, C.
name: Liu, R.
name: Ma, L.
name: Ma, Y. G.
name: Marini, L.
name: Maruyama, R. H.
name: Mayer, D.
name: Mei, Y.
name: Morganti, S.
name: Napolitano, T.
name: Nastasi, M.
name: Nikkel, J.
name: Nones, C.
name: Norman, E. B.
name: Nucciotti, A.
name: Nutini, I.
name: O'Donnell, T.
name: Olmi, M.
name: Ouellet, J. L.
name: Pagan, S.
name: Pagliarone, C. E.
name: Pagnanini, L.
name: Pallavicini, M.
name: Pattavina, L.
name: Pavan, M.
name: Pessina, G.
name: Pettinacci, V.
name: Pira, C.
name: Pirro, S.
name: Pozzi, S.
name: Previtali, E.
name: Puiu, A.
name: Quitadamo, S.
name: Ressa, A.
name: Rosenfeld, C.
name: Sakai, M.
name: Sangiorgio, S.
name: Schmidt, B.
name: Scielzo, N. D.
name: Sharma, V.
name: Singh, V.
name: Sisti, M.
name: Speller, D.
name: Surukuchi, P. T.
name: Taffarello, L.
name: Terranova, F.
name: Tomei, C.
name: Vetter, K. J.
name: Vignati, M.
name: Wagaarachchi, S. L.
name: Wang, B. S.
name: Welliver, B.
name: Wilson, J.
name: Wilson, K.
name: Winslow, L. A.
name: Zimmermann, S.
name: Zucchelli, S.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Nuclear Experiment (nucl-ex)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: CUORE is a large scale cryogenic experiment searching for neutrinoless double beta decay ($0νββ$) in $^{130}$Te. The CUORE detector is made of natural tellurium, providing the possibility of rare event searches on isotopes other than $^{130}$Te. In this work we describe a search for neutrinoless positron emitting electron capture ($0νβ^+EC$) decay in $^{120}$Te with a total TeO$_2$ exposure of 355.7 kg $\cdot$ yr, corresponding to 0.2405 kg $\cdot$ yr of $^{120}$Te. Albeit $0 νββ$ with two final state electrons represents the most promising channel, the emission of a positron and two 511-keV $γ$s make $0νβ^+EC$ decay signature extremely clear. To fully exploit the potential offered by the detector modularity we include events with different topology and perform a simultaneous fit of five selected signal signatures. Using blinded data we extract a median exclusion sensitivity of $3.4 \cdot 10^{22}$ yr at 90% Credibility Interval (C.I.). After unblinding we find no evidence of $0νβ^+EC$ signal and set a 90% C.I. Bayesian lower limit of $2.9 \cdot 10^{22}$ yr on $^{120}$Te half-life. This result improves by an order of magnitude the existing limit from the combined analysis of CUORE-0 and Cuoricino.