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We present a study of the sensitivity and discovery potential of CUORE, a
bolometric double-beta decay experiment under construction at the Laboratori
Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy. Two approaches to the computation of
experimental sensitivity for various background scenarios are presented, and an
extension of the sensitivity formulation to the discovery potential case is
also discussed. Assuming a background rate of 10^-2 cts/(keV kg y), we find
that, after 5 years of live time, CUORE has a 1 sigma sensitivity to the
neutrinoless double-beta decay half-life of T_1/2(1 sigma) = 1.6 \times 10^26 y
and thus a potential to probe the effective Majorana neutrino mass down to
40-100 meV; the sensitivity at 1.64 sigma, which corresponds to 90% C.L., will
be T_1/2(1.64 sigma) = 9.5 \times 10^25 y. This range is compared with the
claim of observation of neutrinoless double-beta decay in 76Ge and the
preferred range of the neutrino mass parameter space from oscillation results.