Search for Fractionally Charged Particles with CUORE

• Published in: Physical review letters 2024-12, Vol.133 (24), p.241801, Article 241801
• Main Authors: Adams, D Q, Alduino, C, Alfonso, K, Avignone, F T, Azzolini, O, Bari, G, Bellini, F, Benato, G, Beretta, M, Biassoni, M, Branca, A, Brofferio, C, Bucci, C, Camilleri, J, Caminata, A, Campani, A, Cao, J, Capelli, S, Capelli, C, Cappelli, L, Cardani, L, Carniti, P, Casali, N, Celi, E, Chiesa, D, Clemenza, M, Copello, S, Cremonesi, O, Creswick, R J, D'Addabbo, A, Dafinei, I, Del Corso, F, Dell'Oro, S, Di Domizio, S, Di Lorenzo, S, Dixon, T, Dompè, V, Fang, D Q, Fantini, G, Faverzani, M, Ferri, E, Ferroni, F, Fiorini, E, Franceschi, M A, Freedman, S J, Fu, S H, Fujikawa, B K, Ghislandi, S, Giachero, A, Girola, M, Gironi, L, Giuliani, A, Gorla, P, Gotti, C, Guillaumon, P V, Gutierrez, T D, Han, K, Hansen, E V, Heeger, K M, Helis, D L, Huang, H Z, Keppel, G, Kolomensky, Yu G, Kowalski, R, Liu, R, Ma, L, Ma, Y G, Marini, L, Maruyama, R H, Mayer, D, Mei, Y, Moore, M N, Napolitano, T, Nastasi, M, Nones, C, Norman, E B, Nucciotti, A, Nutini, I, O'Donnell, T, Olmi, M, Oregui, B T, Ouellet, J L, Pagan, S, Pagliarone, C E, Pagnanini, L, Pallavicini, M, Pattavina, L, Pavan, M, Pessina, G, Pettinacci, V, Pira, C, Pirro, S, Pottebaum, E G, Pozzi, S, Previtali, E, Puiu, A, Quitadamo, S, Ressa, A, Rosenfeld, C, Schmidt, B
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: High Energy Physics - Experiment; Instrumentation and Detectors; Physics
• ISSN: 0031-9007; 1079-7114; 1079-7114
• DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.241801

The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) is a detector array comprised by 988 5  cm×5  cm×5  cm TeO_{2} crystals held below 20 mK, primarily searching for neutrinoless double-beta decay in ^{130}Te. Unprecedented in size among cryogenic calorimetric experiments, CUORE provides a promising setting for the study of exotic throughgoing particles. Using the first tonne year of CUORE's exposure, we perform a search for hypothesized fractionally charged particles (FCPs), which are well-motivated by various standard model extensions and would have suppressed interactions with matter. Across the searched range of charges e/24-e/2 no excess of FCP candidate tracks is observed over background, setting leading limits on the underground FCP flux with charges e/24-e/5 at 90% confidence level. Using the low background environment and segmented geometry of CUORE, we establish the sensitivity of tonne-scale subkelvin detectors to diverse signatures of new physics.