Speaker
Florian Fraenkle
(Karlsruhe Institute of Technology)
Description
A model independent, direct way to measure the neutrino masses is the investigation of the kinematics of single $\beta$-decay via a precise measurement of the $\beta$-decay electron energy spectrum close to the endpoint. This talk will present the current status of two experiments intending to use this method by measuring the $\beta$-spectrum of tritium.
The KArlsruhe TRItium Neutrino (KATRIN) experiment is currently under construction at KIT. The measurement setup consists of a high luminosity windowless gaseous tritium source, a magnetic electron transport system with differential and cryogenic pumping for tritium retention, and an electro-static spectrometer section (pre-spectrometer and main spectrometer) for energy analysis, followed by a segmented detector system for counting transmitted $\beta$-electrons. The latest results of a recent commissiong measurement phase aiming to investigate the performance of the main spectrometer will be presented.
The Project 8 experiment aims to detect coherent cyclotron radiation emitted by energetic electrons in a magnetic field in order to perform $\beta$-spectroscopy. Only recently, a dedicated test experiment was able to successfully detect synchrotron radiation emitted from a single, mildly relativistic electron for the first time, showing the feasability of this approach and allowing for a new method to perform spectroscopy.
Author
Florian Fraenkle
(Karlsruhe Institute of Technology)
