The CUORE experiment, a ton-scale cryogenic bolometer array, recently began operation at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy. The array represents a significant advancement in this technology, and in this work we apply it for the first time to a high-sensitivity search for a lepton-number-violating process: Te-130 neutrinoless double-beta decay.
We report on a search for double beta decay of 130Te to the first 0+ excited state of 130Xe using a 9.8 kg center dot yr exposure of 130Te collected with the CUORE-0 experiment. In this work we exploit different topologies of coincident events to search for both the neutrinoless and two-neutrino double beta decay modes. We find no evidence for either mode and place lower bounds on the half-lives: T01+0 nu>7.9 center dot 1023yr and T01+2 nu>2.4 center dot 1023yr (90%CL).
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