Status of the neutrino mass experiment KATRIN
- Institute for Nuclear Physics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology - KIT, Karlsruhe (Germany)
- Institute for Technical Physics, Tritium Laboratory Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology - KIT, Karlsruhe (Germany)
The most sensitive way to determine the neutrino mass scale without further assumptions is to measure the shape of a tritium beta spectrum near its kinematic end-point. Tritium is the nucleus of choice because of its low endpoint energy, superallowed decay and simple atomic structure. Within an international collaboration the Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino experiment (KATRIN) is currently being built up at KIT. KATRIN will allow a model-independent measurement of the neutrino mass scale with an expected sensitivity of 0.2 eV/c{sup 2} (90% CL). KATRIN will use a source of ultrapure molecular tritium. This contribution presents the status of the KATRIN experiment, thereby focusing on its Calibration and Monitoring System (CMS), which is the last component being subject to research/development. After a brief overview of the KATRIN experiment in Section II the CMS is introduced in Section III. In Section IV the Beta Induced X-Ray Spectroscopy (BIXS) as method of choice to monitor the tritium activity of the KATRIN source is described and first results are presented.
- OSTI ID:
- 22429696
- Journal Information:
- Fusion Science and Technology, Vol. 67, Issue 2; Conference: TRITIUM 2013: 10. International Conference on Tritium Science and Technology, Nice Acropolis (France), 21-25 Oct 2013; Other Information: Country of input: France; 18 refs.; ISSN 1536-1055
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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