Direct neutrino mass measurement at the KATRIN experiment
The KArlsruhe TRItium Neutrino experiment (KATRIN) is performing a high precision spectroscopy of the tritium beta-decay spectrum to search for the signature of the neutrino mass. It combines a high-intensity gaseous molecular tritium source and a high-resolution electrostatic spectrometer with magnetic adiabatic collimation. This allows KATRIN to reach a sub-eV sensitivity to the neutrino mass. Moreover, existence of the fourth neutrino-mass eigenstate (sterile neutrino), a new light boson and exotic general weak interactions are investigated. The analysis of the first five KATRIN measurement campaigns results in a new neutrino-mass upper limit $m_\nu<0.45 \, \text{eV}$ at 90% confidence level (CL) and the existence of a sterile neutrino is excluded in the studied region with 95% CL. In the analysis of the second measurement campaign we derive competitive constrains on general neutrino interactions and evaluate the campaign's sensitivity to the existence of the new light bosons.
Authors
- J. Štorek
Publication Details
- Published
- 2026-01-20
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.22323/1.485.0173
- Primary Topic
- Neutrino Physics Research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- U.S. Department of Energy
- European Commission
- Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare
- Karlsruhe School of Elementary Particle and Astroparticle Physics: Science and Technology, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology