Search for Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay of ¹³⁰<i>Te</i> to the First Excited State of ¹³⁰<i>Xe</i> with CUORE

A coincidence analysis to search for neutrinoless double beta decay to the first excited state in 130Te in the CUORE detector is presented. Monte Carlo simulations are used to identify likely signatures of higher multiplicity neutrinoless double beta decay events while also describing the background of those events in coinci- dent regions. We use that information to build an unbinned simultaneous fit using the RooFit framework that checks for proportional responses in coincident regions to help reject background. A frequentist statistical approach following the mold of Feldman-Cousins is used to set a sensitivity of τ1/2 ≈ 1 × 1025.