The detection of marine microseismic activity with the CUORE tonne-scale cryogenic experiment

Abstract Vibrations from experimental setups and the environment are a persistent source of noise for low-temperature calorimeters searching for rare events, including neutrinoless double beta (0 ν β β ) decay or dark matter interactions. Such noise can significantly limit experimental sensitivity to the physics case under investigation. Here, we report the detection of marine microseismic vibrations using mK-scale calorimeters. This study employs a multi-device analysis correlating data from CUORE, the leading experiment in the search for 0 ν β β decay with mK-scale calorimeters, and the Copernicus Earth Observation program, revealing the seasonal impact of Mediterranean Sea activity on CUORE’s energy thresholds, resolution, and sensitivity over four years. The detection of marine microseisms underscores the need to address faint environmental noise in ultra-sensitive experiments. Understanding how such noise couples to the detector and developing mitigation strategies is essential for next-generation experiments. We demonstrate one such strategy: a noise decorrelation algorithm implemented in CUORE using auxiliary sensors, which reduces vibrational noise and improves detector performance. Enhancing sensitivity to 0 ν β β decay and to rare events with low-energy signatures requires identifying unresolved noise sources, advancing noise reduction methods, and improving vibration suppression systems, all of which inform the design of next-generation rare event experiments.

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Publication Details

Journal
Communications Physics
Published
2026-02-26
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s42005-025-02484-5
Primary Topic
Neutrino Physics Research
Type
article
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article

The detection of marine microseismic activity with the CUORE tonne-scale cryogenic experiment

F. Ferroni, L. Aragão, V. Sharma, K. Wilson et al.
Communications Physics
Neutrino Physics Research
article

The detection of marine microseismic activity with the CUORE tonne-scale cryogenic experiment

F. Ferroni, L. Aragão, V. Sharma, K. Wilson, C. Tomei, G. Bari, G. Benato, D. Q. Fang, D. Q. Adams, T. J. Zhu, Y. G. Ma, K. J. Vetter, K. M. Heeger, S. Quitadamo, M. Girola, A. D’Addabbo, J. Cao, D. Mayer, L. Cardani, R. Kowalski, F. Bellini, L. Marini, M. A. Franceschi, L. Gironi, C. Brofferio, F. T. Avignone, M. Olmi, S. di Sabatino, A. Shaikina, M. Faverzani, A. Ressa, S. Pirro, K. Han, S. Dell’Oro, D. L. Helis, I. Nutini, F. Xie, C. Gotti, J. R. Wilson, T. O’Donnell, M. Beretta, O. Cremonesi, C. Pira, P. Gorla, C. E. Pagliarone, S. Pozzi, T. Napolitano, E. G. Pottebaum, R. H. Maruyama, A. Branca, B. K. Fujikawa, S. Capelli, K. Alfonso, B. T. Oregui, M. Clemenza, A. Nucciotti, A. Armigliato, E. Celi, L. Pagnanini, O. Azzolini, S. Pagan, E. Ferri, A. Giachero, S. Ghislandi, R. J. Creswick, M. Biassoni, V. Singh, F. del Corso, L. Taffarello, L. L. Ma, P. T. Surukuchi, M. Vignati, A. Giuliani, M. T. Hurst, N. Casali, S. J. Freedman, G. De Luca, E. V. Hansen, R. Serino, M. Pallavicini, S. Copello, B. Schmidt, P. Ruggieri, S. Castellaro, M. N. Moore, G. Keppel, M. Pavan, R. Liu, D. Speller, H. Z. Huang, A. Torres, Y. Mei, G. Pessina, V. Pettinacci, J. A. Torres, P. V. Guillaumon, A. Armatol, C. Capelli, J. Camilleri, C. Nones, M. Sisti, L. Cappelli, C. Rosenfeld, P. Carniti, S. Zimmermann, A. Puiu, S. H. Fu, M. Nastasi, L. Pattavina, A. Campani, E. B. Norman, R. Brancaccio, S. L. Wagaarachchi, E. Previtali, D. Chiesa, C. Alduino, L. A. Winslow, C. Bucci, B. Welliver, S. Di Domizio, Yu. G. Kolomensky, S. Di Lorenzo, M. Zavatarelli, S. Zucchelli, T. D. Gutierrez, I. Dafinei, A. Caminata, E. Fiorini
article en

Abstract

Abstract Vibrations from experimental setups and the environment are a persistent source of noise for low-temperature calorimeters searching for rare events, including neutrinoless double beta (0 ν β β ) decay or dark matter interactions. Such noise can significantly limit experimental sensitivity to the physics case under investigation. Here, we report the detection of marine microseismic vibrations using mK-scale calorimeters. This study employs a multi-device analysis correlating data from CUORE, the leading experiment in the search for 0 ν β β decay with mK-scale calorimeters, and the Copernicus Earth Observation program, revealing the seasonal impact of Mediterranean Sea activity on CUORE’s energy thresholds, resolution, and sensitivity over four years. The detection of marine microseisms underscores the need to address faint environmental noise in ultra-sensitive experiments. Understanding how such noise couples to the detector and developing mitigation strategies is essential for next-generation experiments. We demonstrate one such strategy: a noise decorrelation algorithm implemented in CUORE using auxiliary sensors, which reduces vibrational noise and improves detector performance. Enhancing sensitivity to 0 ν β β decay and to rare events with low-energy signatures requires identifying unresolved noise sources, advancing noise reduction methods, and improving vibration suppression systems, all of which inform the design of next-generation rare event experiments.

Communications Physics
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), Johns Hopkins University (US), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (US), California Polytechnic State University (US), University of South Carolina (US), University of California, Los Angeles (US), University of Pittsburgh (US), Shanghai Jiao Tong University (CN), Università degli studi di Cassino e del Lazio Meridionale (IT), University of Ferrara (IT), Fudan University (CN), Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives (FR), Université Paris-Saclay (FR), Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (IT), Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (IT), Yale University (US), Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Padova (IT), Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Pavia (IT), CMCC Foundation - Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (IT), Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro (IT), Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Genova (IT), CEA Paris-Saclay (FR), Institute of Modern Physics (CN), Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules (FR), Laboratoire de Physique des 2 Infinis Irène Joliot-Curie (FR), Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Milano Bicocca (IT), Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati (IT), Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Bologna (IT), Gran Sasso Science Institute (IT), Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Roma I (IT), Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Perugia (IT), Institut de Recherche sur les Lois Fondamentales de l'Univers (FR), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US), University of Milano-Bicocca (IT), University of Genoa (IT), Virginia Tech (US), Sapienza University of Rome (IT), University of Bologna (IT), University of California, Berkeley (US)
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