Speaker
Description
After completing 1000 days of data taking at the KATRIN experiment, the collaboration expects to reach a final sensitivity on the effective anti-electron neutrino mass below 300 meV. However, neutrino oscillation observations allow the value to be as low as 50 meV or 9 meV, depending on the neutrino mass ordering. Taking the next step in direct neutrino-mass searches includes probing the region of inverted mass hierarchy and therefore requires to achieve substantial improvements in statistics, energy resolution, and background suppression.
Within the framework of KATRIN++, several novel experimental concepts are being explored to extend the sensitivity of such a next-generation experiment. Two particularly promising strategies are:
(1) the implementation of differential detection techniques with sub-eV energy resolution and
(2) the commissioning of a large-volume atomic tritium source, enabling significantly increased signal statistics. The combination of these approaches would allow for high statistics to be acquired quickly and with ultra-high energy resolution. The goal of KATRIN++ is to identify and develop the hardware technologies needed to reach the required precision. We have formed several working groups within KATRIN++ to tackle the challenges of developing new source and detector concepts. On the source side we are looking into reliable ways to produce, cool and trap tritium atoms. For the differential detection method, we are currently investigating the applicability of quantum sensor based detectors, such as metallic microcalorimeters (MMCs), as well as a Time-of-Flight based technology coupled with a Transverse Energy Compensator (TEC). Our aim is to investigate these different approaches and develop scalable technologies by mid-2030s.
In this talk, we will summarize the technological requirements and fundamental physics limitations to confine the achievable sensitivity on the neutrino mass for several experimental configurations, and present the ongoing efforts towards realising the hardware technologies inside a future experiment.