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Cryogenic calorimetric experiments to search for neutrinoless double-beta decay (0νββ) are highly competitive, scalable, and versatile in isotope choice. The largest planned detector array, CUPID, consists of about 1500 individual Li₂¹⁰⁰MoO₄ detector modules, with further scaling envisioned for a follow-up experiment (CUPID-1T). In this article, we present a novel detector concept targeting this second stage, using a low-impedance TES-based readout for the Li₂MoO₄ absorber. This design is easily mass-produced and supports multiplexed readout. We describe the detector design and results from a first prototype operated at the NEXUS shallow underground facility at Fermilab. The detector is a 2-cm-side cube with a mass of 21 g, strongly thermally coupled to its readout chip, allowing rise-times of approximately 0.5 ms. This is more than an order of magnitude faster than current NTD-based detectors and is expected to effectively mitigate backgrounds caused by pile-up of two independent two-neutrino decay events occurring close in time. With a baseline resolution of 1.95 keV (FWHM), these performance parameters extrapolate to a background index from pile-up as low as 5 × 10⁻⁶ counts/keV/kg/year in CUPID-sized crystals. The detector was calibrated up to the MeV region, demonstrating sufficient dynamic range for 0νββ searches. In combination with a SuperCDMS HVeV detector, this setup also enabled a precision measurement of the scintillation time constants of Li₂MoO₄, revealing a primary component with a fast ~20 μs time scale. 

Various dark matter search experiments employ phonon-based crystal detectors operated at cryogenic temperatures. Some of these detectors, including certain silicon detectors used by the SuperCDMS Collaboration, are able to achieve single-charge sensitivity when a voltage bias is applied across the detector. The total amount of phonon energy measured by such a detector is proportional to the number of electron-hole pairs created by the interaction. However, crystal impurities and surface effects can cause propagating charges to either become trapped inside the crystal or create additional unpaired charges, producing nonquantized measured energy as a result. A new analytical model for describing these detector response effects in phonon-based crystal detectors is presented. This model improves upon previous versions by demonstrating how the detector response, and thus the measured energy spectrum, is expected to differ depending on the source of events. We use this model to extract detector response parameters for SuperCDMS HVeV detectors, and illustrate how this robust modeling can help statistically discriminate between sources of events in order to improve the sensitivity of dark matter search experiments. 

Abstract CUPID, the CUORE Upgrade with Particle Identification, is a next-generation experiment to search for neutrinoless double beta decay ($$0\mathrm {\nu \beta \beta }$$ $0\nu \beta \beta$) and other rare events using enriched Li$$_{2}$$ $_2^{}$$$^{100}$$ $_{}^{100}$MoO$$_{4}$$ $_4^{}$scintillating bolometers. It will be hosted by the CUORE cryostat located at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy. The main physics goal of CUPID is to search for$$0\mathrm {\nu \beta \beta }$$ $0\nu \beta \beta$of$$^{100}$$ $_{}^{100}$Mo with a discovery sensitivity covering the full neutrino mass regime in the inverted ordering scenario, as well as the portion of the normal ordering regime with lightest neutrino mass larger than 10 meV. With a conservative background index of 10$$^{-4}$$ $_{}^{-4}$ cts$$/($$ $/($keV$$\cdot $$ $·$kg$$\cdot $$ $·$yr$$)$$ $)$, 240 kg isotope mass, 5 keV FWHM energy resolution at 3 MeV and 10 live-years of data taking, CUPID will have a 90% C.L. half-life exclusion sensitivity of$$1.8\cdot 10^{27}$$ $1.8·{10}^{27}$ yr, corresponding to an effective Majorana neutrino mass ($$m_{\beta \beta }$$ $m_{\beta \beta }$) sensitivity of 9–15 meV, and a$$3\sigma $$ $3\sigma$discovery sensitivity of$$1\cdot 10^{27}$$ $1·{10}^{27}$ yr, corresponding to an$$m_{\beta \beta }$$ $m_{\beta \beta }$range of 12–21 meV. 

Abstract Thwaites Glacier represents 15% of the ice discharge from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and influences a wider catchment 1–3 . Because it is grounded below sea level 4,5 , Thwaites Glacier is thought to be susceptible to runaway retreat triggered at the grounding line (GL) at which the glacier reaches the ocean 6,7 . Recent ice-flow acceleration 2,8 and retreat of the ice front 8–10 and GL 11,12 indicate that ice loss will continue. The relative impacts of mechanisms underlying recent retreat are however uncertain. Here we show sustained GL retreat from at least 2011 to 2020 and resolve mechanisms of ice-shelf melt at the submetre scale. Our conclusions are based on observations of the Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf (TEIS) from an underwater vehicle, extending from the GL to 3 km oceanward and from the ice–ocean interface to the sea floor. These observations show a rough ice base above a sea floor sloping upward towards the GL and an ocean cavity in which the warmest water exceeds 2 °C above freezing. Data closest to the ice base show that enhanced melting occurs along sloped surfaces that initiate near the GL and evolve into steep-sided terraces. This pronounced melting along steep ice faces, including in crevasses, produces stratification that suppresses melt along flat interfaces. These data imply that slope-dependent melting sculpts the ice base and acts as an important response to ocean warming. 

ABSTRACT We present chemical abundances for 21 elements (from Li to Eu) in 150 metal-poor Galactic stars spanning −4.1 < [Fe/H] < −2.1. The targets were selected from the SkyMapper survey and include 90 objects with [Fe/H] ≤ −3 of which some 15 have [Fe/H] ≤ −3.5. When combining the sample with our previous studies, we find that the metallicity distribution function has a power-law slope of Δ(log N)/Δ[Fe/H] = 1.51 ± 0.01 dex per dex over the range −4 ≤ [Fe/H] ≤ −3. With only seven carbon-enhanced metal-poor stars in the sample, we again find that the selection of metal-poor stars based on SkyMapper filters is biased against highly carbon-rich stars for [Fe/H] > −3.5. Of the 20 objects for which we could measure nitrogen, 11 are nitrogen-enhanced metal-poor (NEMP) stars. Within our sample, the high NEMP fraction (55 per cent ± 21 per cent) is compatible with the upper range of predicted values (between 12 per cent and 35 per cent). The chemical abundance ratios [X/Fe] versus [Fe/H] exhibit similar trends to previous studies of metal-poor stars and Galactic chemical evolution models. We report the discovery of nine new r-I stars, four new r-II stars, one of which is the most metal-poor known, nine low-α stars with [α/Fe] ≤ 0.15 as well as one unusual star with [Zn/Fe] = +1.4 and [Sr/Fe] = +1.2 but with normal [Ba/Fe]. Finally, we combine our sample with literature data to provide the most extensive view of the early chemical enrichment of the Milky Way Galaxy. 

The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) is a detector array comprised by 988 $5\mathrm{cm}\times 5\mathrm{cm}\times 5\mathrm{cm}$ ${\mathrm{TeO}}_2$crystals held below 20 mK, primarily searching for neutrinoless double-beta decay in ${}^{130}\mathrm{Te}$. 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 (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. Published by the American Physical Society2024 

This article presents constraints on dark-matter-electron interactions obtained from the first underground data-taking campaign with multiple SuperCDMS HVeV detectors operated in the same housing. An exposure of $7.63\mathrm{g}\text{−}\mathrm{days}$is used to set upper limits on the dark-matter-electron scattering cross section for dark matter masses between 0.5 and $1000\mathrm{MeV}/c^2$, as well as upper limits on dark photon kinetic mixing and axionlike particle axioelectric coupling for masses between 1.2 and $23.3\mathrm{eV}/c^2$. Compared to an earlier HVeV search, sensitivity was improved as a result of an increased overburden of 225 meters of water equivalent, an anticoincidence event selection, and better pile-up rejection. In the case of dark-matter-electron scattering via a heavy mediator, an improvement by up to a factor of 25 in cross section sensitivity was achieved. Published by the American Physical Society2025