Talk Title: Challenges and prospects for direct measurements of the absolute neutrino mass
Abstract: Although non-zero splittings between neutrino mass eigenstates have been discovered from neutrino oscillations, the absolute energy scale of neutrino mass remains one of the key open questions in particle physics and cosmology. Precise spectroscopy of beta-decay spectrum near the endpoint provides a model-independent probe for absolute neutrino mass. With a MAC-E-filter type spectrometer, the state-of-the-art KArlsruhe TRItium Neutrino (KATRIN) experiment has set an upper limit of 0.45 eV at a 90% confidence level for electron anti-neutrino mass, and is concluding its 1000 days of measurements this year with an expected sensitivity of mv < 0.3 eV. Further improvements toward the inverted mass ordering region pose challenges on the developments of atomic tritium source, reduction of backgrounds and new detection technologies. This talk will focus on the experimental setup and analysis procedures for the KATRIN experiment, and discuss the potential advances and challenges from new technologies adopted in other experiments.
Host: Karsten Heeger