Dresden 2013 – scientific programme

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HK: Fachverband Physik der Hadronen und Kerne

HK 66: Astroteilchenphysik

HK 66.3: Talk

Thursday, March 7, 2013, 14:45–15:00, HSZ-401

Sensitivity of KATRIN-like experiments for keV Neutrinos — •Susanne Mertens — Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, USA — Helmholtz Alliance for Astroparticle Physics, Karlsruhe, Germany

The KATRIN experiment is designed to probe the absolute neutrino mass scale with a sensitivity of 200 meV at 90% confidence level in a direct and model independent way. This is achieved through a measurement of the spectral shape of tritium beta decay close to the endpoint, where the influence of a non-zero neutrino mass is maximal.

KATRIN makes use of a gaseous molecular tritium source of extremely high activity and stability. These unique source properties allow KATRIN to extent its physics reach from its main goal of measuring the neutrino mass in the sub-eV range to look for contributions of possible neutrinos in the multi-keV range constituting a possible candidate for Warm Dark Matter. A heavy sterile neutrino would manifest itself as a tiny kink and subsequent spectral distortion deep in the beta spectrum, further away from the endpoint.

In this talk a sensitivity study of a KATRIN-like experiment to detect keV neutrinos will be presented. Different statistical analysis techniques, the effect of systematic uncertainties and possible technical realizations will be discussed.

We acknowledge the support by BMBF and HAP.