Energy Calibration for a Sensitive Search for Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay: Using the Cuoricino Experience to Prepare for CUORE

Neutrinos, which were long believed to be massless particles, are now known to have a tiny finite mass. A thorough understanding of the properties of their masses may provide vital clues to the history of the development of the universe as we know it.;An intensive experimental search is underway for evidence of a Majorana mass component to the neutrino via many current and upcoming detectors seeking to observe the rare nuclear process neutrinoless double-beta decay (0νββ). These detectors must be able to achieve very low backgrounds and a precise understanding of their energy scales.;This paper presents the experimental approach of one of these 0νββ experiments, the Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE), and the attendant challenges of achieving excellent energy calibration performance in the detector from the perspectives of both hardware design and analysis. Experience and data from Cuoricino, the predecessor of CUORE, have been extensively leveraged to prepare optimized operational procedures for CUORE. The expected sensitivity profile of CUORE as a function of time is also presented and compared with those of other leading 0νββ experiments.