Sub-eV neutrino mass limit from KATRIN

by Prof. Christian Weinheimer (Westfaelische Wilhelms-Universitaet Muenster (DE))

Wednesday 15 Jun 2022, 17:00 → 18:00 Europe/Vienna

Abstract:
Since the discovery of neutrino oscillation, we know that neutrinos have a non-zero mass, but we do not know the absolute neutrino mass scale, which is as important for cosmology as for particle physics. The direct search for a non-zero neutrino mass using weak decay endpoint spectra is complementary to the search for neutrinoless double beta decays and the analysis of cosmological data.
The Karlsruhe tritium neutrino experiment KATRIN investigates the endpoint region of the tritium beta decay. KATRIN uses a powerful, windowless, gaseous molecular tritium source in combination with a giant MAC-E filter as an electron spectrometer. To achieve its sub-eV sensitivity, KATRIN has pushed many technologies to their limits and uses sophisticated calibration techniques. From early 2019, KATRIN is taking highly statistical tritium data. The 2019 data already provide a sub-eV sensitivity and a neutrino mass limit. In addition to presenting the latest results, the current status of the experiment and an outlook on future improvements will be given.

Place:
Stefan Meyer Institute
Kegelgasse 27, 1030 Wien, Austria
Seminar Room 3.01, 3rd floor

Online Participation:
please request zoom link via email to martin.simon at oeaw.ac.at
before 12:00 of June 15th

Chair:
Prof. Eberhard Widmann