Recent neutrino mass results and mitigation of systematic effects in current and future experiments

by Dr Caroline Rodenbeck (IAP-TLK)

Friday 24 Jul 2026, 13:00 → 14:00 Europe/London

Bohr Conference Room

The neutrino mass is one of the still-unknowns of particle physics. Despite experimental efforts spanning more than 70 years, each experiment
further constraining the allowed neutrino mass range, no experimental sensitivity was so far sufficient to detect the neutrino’s light mass.

It is possible to determine the neutrino mass solely from the kinematics of weak decays. For example, by measuring the endpoint region of the
spectrometer. It sets the currently most stringent upper limit on the neutrino mass, at a value of below 0.45 eV (90 % CL) and aims to achieve a sensitivity goal of below 0.3 eV.

The talk will present the recent results and highlight efforts to mitigate systematics of the current KATRIN setup. They include calibration
measurements with a photo-electron source to investigate energy losses due to scattering of the electrons, and energy scale calibration using conversion electrons from 83mKr.

Very likely, the neutrino mass value is out of reach for KATRIN’s sensitivity and new experiments employing improved technology are necessary.
One key improvement will be switching from a molecular to an atomic tritium source. Such a source can be implemented by trapping mK-cold atoms in a magnetic field. The talk will present the current efforts within the Karlsruhe Mainz Atomic Tritium Experiment (KAMATE) to produce atoms and demonstrate the first cooling stages, and give an outlook beyond KAMATE.