Speaker
Angelo Nucciotti
(INFN Milano-Bicocca / Dip. di Fisica U. di Milano-Bicocca)
Description
The international project "Microcalorimeter Arrays for a Rhenium
Experiment" (MARE) aims at a direct and calorimetric measurement of
the electron antineutrino mass with sub-electronvolt sensitivity.
The experimental strategy consists in analysing the beta spectrum of
187Re near the end-point looking for the spectral distortion
expected for a finite antineutrino mass. In these experiments the
detectors are thermal calorimeters with absorbers made of rhenium or
of one of its compounds. Therefore the beta decay source is
internal to the sensitive detector removing the most severe
systematic uncertainties which have plagued the traditional and, so
far, more sensitive spectrometers. In the final experimental phase,
large arrays with as many as 10000 detectors each will be realized.
At least five arrays will be then deployed to collect the statistics
required to probe the antineutrino mass with a sensitivity of at
least 0.2 eV, comparable to the one expected for the Katrin
experiment.
In this talk I would like to give an update on the status of the
MARE experimental activity and their prospects. I will then discuss
the results of a detailed study of the sensitivity achievable with
the calorimetric approach.
