Open Access

Exploring the keV-scale physics potential of CUORE

D. Q. Adams¹, C. Alduino¹, K. Alfonso², A. Armatol³, F. T. Avignone, III¹, O. Azzolini⁴, G. Bari⁵, F. Bellini^6,7, G. Benato^8,9 et al. (CUORE Collaboration)

G. Benato^8,9, M. Beretta^10,11, M. Biassoni¹², A. Branca^10,12, C. Brofferio^10,12, C. Bucci ⁹, J. Camilleri², A. Caminata¹³, A. Campani^14,13, J. Cao¹⁵, C. Capelli³, S. Capelli^10,12, L. Cappelli⁹, L. Cardani⁷, P. Carniti^10,12, N. Casali⁷, E. Celi^8,9, D. Chiesa^10,12, M. Clemenza¹², S. Copello¹⁶, A. Cosoli^10,12, O. Cremonesi¹², R. J. Creswick¹, A. D’Addabbo⁹, I. Dafinei⁷, S. Dell’Oro^10,12, S. Di Domizio^14,13, S. Di Lorenzo⁹, T. Dixon¹⁷, D. Q. Fang¹⁵, M. Faverzani^10,12, E. Ferri¹², F. Ferroni^8,7, E. Fiorini^10,12,*, M. A. Franceschi¹⁸, S. J. Freedman^3,19,*, S. H. Fu^15,9, B. K. Fujikawa³, S. Ghislandi^8,9, A. Giachero^10,12, M. Girola¹⁰, L. Gironi^10,12, A. Giuliani¹⁷, P. Gorla⁹, C. Gotti¹², P. V. Guillaumon^9,†, T. D. Gutierrez²⁰, K. Han²¹, E. V. Hansen¹⁹, K. M. Heeger²², D. L. Helis⁹, H. Z. Huang²³, M. T. Hurst²⁴, G. Keppel⁴, Yu. G. Kolomensky^19,3, R. Kowalski²⁵, R. Liu²², L. Ma^15,23, Y. G. Ma¹⁵, L. Marini⁹, R. H. Maruyama²², D. Mayer^19,3, Y. Mei³, M. N. Moore²², T. Napolitano¹⁸, M. Nastasi^10,12, C. Nones²⁶, E. B. Norman²⁷, A. Nucciotti^10,12, I. Nutini^12,10, T. O’Donnell², M. Olmi⁹, B. T. Oregui²⁵, S. Pagan²², C. E. Pagliarone^9,28, L. Pagnanini^8,9, M. Pallavicini^14,13, L. Pattavina^10,12, M. Pavan^10,12, G. Pessina¹², V. Pettinacci⁷, C. Pira⁴, S. Pirro⁹, E. G. Pottebaum²², S. Pozzi¹², E. Previtali^10,12, A. Puiu⁹, S. Quitadamo^8,9, A. Ressa⁷, C. Rosenfeld¹, B. Schmidt²⁶, R. Serino¹⁰, A. Shaikina^8,9, V. Sharma²⁴, V. Singh¹⁹, M. Sisti¹², D. Speller²⁵, P. T. Surukuchi²⁴, L. Taffarello²⁹, C. Tomei⁷, A. Torres², J. A. Torres²², K. J. Vetter³⁰, M. Vignati^6,7, S. L. Wagaarachchi^19,3, R. Wang²⁵, B. Welliver^19,3, J. Wilson¹, K. Wilson¹, L. A. Winslow³⁰, F. Xie¹⁵, T. Zhu¹⁹, S. Zimmermann³¹, and S. Zucchelli^32,5 (CUORE Collaboration)

¹Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29208, USA
²Center for Neutrino Physics, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, USA
³Nuclear Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
⁴INFN–Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro, Legnaro (Padova) I-35020, Italy
⁵INFN–Sezione di Bologna, Bologna I-40127, Italy
⁶Dipartimento di Fisica, Sapienza Università di Roma, Roma I-00185, Italy
⁷INFN–Sezione di Roma, Roma I-00185, Italy
⁸Gran Sasso Science Institute, L’Aquila I-67100, Italy
⁹INFN–Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, Assergi (L’Aquila) I-67100, Italy
¹⁰Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Milano-Bicocca, Milano I-20126, Italy
¹¹INFN–Sezione di Milano, Milano I-20133, Italy
¹²INFN–Sezione di Milano Bicocca, Milano I-20126, Italy
¹³INFN–Sezione di Genova, Genova I-16146, Italy
¹⁴Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Genova, Genova I-16146, Italy
¹⁵Key Laboratory of Nuclear Physics and Ion-beam Application (MOE), Institute of Modern Physics, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
¹⁶INFN–Sezione di Pavia, Pavia I-27100, Italy
¹⁷Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS/IN2P3, IJCLab, 91405 Orsay, France
¹⁸INFN–Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, Frascati (Roma) I-00044, Italy
¹⁹Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
²⁰Physics Department, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, California 93407, USA
²¹INPAC and School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University; Shanghai Laboratory for Particle Physics and Cosmology, Shanghai 200240, China
²²Wright Laboratory, Department of Physics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA
²³Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
²⁴Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260, USA
²⁵Department of Physics and Astronomy, The Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21211, USA
²⁶IRFU, CEA, Université Paris-Saclay, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
²⁷Department of Nuclear Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
²⁸Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile e Meccanica, Università degli Studi di Cassino e del Lazio Meridionale, Cassino I-03043, Italy
²⁹INFN–Sezione di Padova, Padova I-35131, Italy
³⁰Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
³¹Engineering Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
³²Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Alma Mater Studiorum–Università di Bologna, Bologna I-40127, Italy

^*Deceased.
^†Presently at Instituto de Física, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo 05508-090, Brazil.

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 012012 – Published 23 January, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/fv25-bfgx

Abstract

We present the analysis techniques developed to explore the keV-scale energy region of the Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) experiment, based on more than 2 metric ton yr of data collected over five years. By prioritizing a stricter selection over a larger exposure, we are able to optimize data selection for thresholds at 10 keV and 3 keV with 691 kg yr and 11 kg yr of data, respectively. We study how the performance varies among the 988-detector array with different detector characteristics and data-taking conditions. We achieve an average baseline resolution of $2.54 \pm 0.14 keV$ FWHM and $1.18 \pm 0.02 keV$ FWHM for the data selection at 10 keV and 3 keV, respectively. The analysis methods employed reduce the overall background by about an order of magnitude, reaching $2.06 \pm 0.05 counts / (keV kg days)$ and $16 \pm 2 counts / (keV kg days)$ at the thresholds of 10 keV and 3 keV. We evaluate for the first time the near-threshold reconstruction efficiencies of the CUORE experiment, and find these to be $50 \pm 2 %$ and $26 \pm 4 %$ at 10 keV and 3 keV, respectively. This analysis provides crucial insights into rare decay studies, new physics searches, and keV-scale background modeling with CUORE. We demonstrate that ton-scale cryogenic calorimeters can operate across a wide energy range, from keV to MeV, establishing their scalability as versatile detectors for rare event and dark matter physics. These findings also inform the optimization of future large mass cryogenic calorimeters to enhance the sensitivity to low-energy phenomena.

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 012012– Published 23 January, 2026

Vol. 113, Iss. 1 — 1 January 2026

Received 13 June 2025
Accepted 24 December 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/fv25-bfgx

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP³.

Published by the American Physical Society

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Exploring the keV-scale physics potential of CUORE

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