CUORICINO: a new large bolometer array for astroparticle physics

After 3 years of project study and development, a 40 kg, 62-crystal, thermal detector array CUORICINO started last February. It is supposed to test the two claimed, but still not confirmed, evidences in Dark Matter and in Double Beta Decay (DBD) reported in the last few years and it will have a first glance on Solar Axion. The technical goals that were forseen for this experiment would be the confirmation on the feasibility of the CUORE experiment, a 1 ton multipurpose experiment with bolometers, that could open a new era in DBD physics. © 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.