Project 8: tritium decays, neutrino masses, and single-electron spectroscopy [Note special day]

by Prof. Ben Monreal (UC Santa Barbara)

Friday 26 Feb 2016, 10:00 → 11:00 US/Eastern

Universe

Beta decay kinematics are, in principle, sensitive to the absolute values of the neutrino masses. Many decades of work with tritium decay have shown m_nu to be in the range 0--2.0 eV; require improvement in spectrometer resolution, statistics, and systematics. The KATRIN experiment will push the limits of classical techniques to reach 0.2 eV sensitivity. The Project 8 is developing what we hope is the next step in beta electron spectroscopy; we can now perform precise electron energy measurements, in-situ in a low-pressure gaseous source, by cyclotron radiation energy spectroscopy (CRES). I will show recent results from the Project 8 prototype, including the first CRES measurements in krypton, and our path to first molecular tritum measurements and to a future large atomic tritium experiment.

Slides bnl_project8.pdf