Optimization of the low energy spectrum in CUORE

The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) is a ton-scale bolometer located at Gran Sasso National Laboratories in Assergi, Italy. To date, CUORE has collected over 1000 kg yr of exposure. The energy spectrum of CUORE is typically optimized to search for the neutrinoless double-beta decay of Te-130. To utilize the entire available energy spectrum, we can optimize the selection of usable physics events at lower energies to improve sensitivity for analyses with signals at energies of less than 40 keV. We build upon techniques developed by CUORE-0 for application to the larger dataset provided by CUORE, as well as study alternate methods in an attempt to improve sensitivity in this low energy regime. These studies are done on both real and simulated data, in an effort to improve our understanding of this mostly unanalyzed region of the energy spectrum, with the goal of exploring this energy region of the spectrum in a search for dark matter candidates.