Determining the neutrino mass with cyclotron radiation emission spectroscopy—Project 8. (30th March 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Esfahani, Ali Ashtari; Asner, David M; Böser, Sebastian; Cervantes, Raphael; Claessens, Christine; de Viveiros, Luiz; Doe, Peter J; Doeleman, Shepard; Fernandes, Justin L; Fertl, Martin; Finn, Erin C; Formaggio, Joseph A; Furse, Daniel; Guigue, Mathieu; Heeger, Karsten M; Jones, A Mark; Kazkaz, Kareem; Kofron, Jared A; Lamb, Callum; LaRoque, Benjamin H; Machado, Eric; McBride, Elizabeth L; Miller, Michael L; Monreal, Benjamin; Mohanmurthy, Prajwal; Nikkel, James A; Oblath, Noah S; Pettus, Walter C; Robertson, R G Hamish; Rosenberg, Leslie J; Rybka, Gray; Rysewyk, Devyn; Saldaña, Luis; Slocum, Penny L; Sternberg, Matthew G; Tedeschi, Jonathan R; Thümmler, Thomas; VanDevender, Brent A; Vertatschitsch, Laura E; Wachtendonk, Megan; Weintroub, Jonathan; Woods, Natasha L; Young, André; Zayas, Evan M;
• Is Part Of: Journal of physics. Volume 44:Number 5(2017:May)
• Publication Date: 2017-03-30
• Subjects: neutrino mass -- cyclotron radiation -- atomic trap; Nuclear physics -- Periodicals; Particles (Nuclear physics) -- Periodicals; Physique nucléaire -- Périodiques; Particules (Physique nucléaire) -- Périodiques; Kernfysica; Elementaire deeltjes; 539.7
• DOI: 10.1088/1361-6471/aa5b4f
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0954-3899

Abstract

Abstract: The most sensitive direct method to establish the absolute neutrino mass is observation of the endpoint of the tritium beta-decay spectrum. Cyclotron radiation emission spectroscopy (CRES) is a precision spectrographic technique that can probe much of the unexplored neutrino mass range with  ( eV ) resolution. A lower bound of m ( ν e ) ≳ 9 ( 0.1 ) meV is set by observations of neutrino oscillations, while the KATRIN experiment—the current-generation tritium beta-decay experiment that is based on magnetic adiabatic collimation with an electrostatic (MAC-E) filter—will achieve a sensitivity of m ( ν e ) ≲ 0.2 eV . The CRES technique aims to avoid the difficulties in scaling up a MAC-E filter-based experiment to achieve a lower mass sensitivity. In this paper we review the current status of the CRES technique and describe Project 8, a phased absolute neutrino mass experiment that has the potential to reach sensitivities down to m ( ν e ) ≲ 40 meV using an atomic tritium source.