Wuppertal 2015 – scientific programme

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T: Fachverband Teilchenphysik

T 71: Niederenergie Neutrinophysik V

T 71.6: Talk

Wednesday, March 11, 2015, 18:05–18:20, I.13.70 (HS 27)

keV Sterile Neutrino Sensitivity Studies by Time-Of-Flight with KATRIN — •Nicholas Steinbrink for the KATRIN collaboration — Westfälische Wilhelms Universität, Institut für Kernphysik, Wilhelm Klemm-Str. 9, 48149 Münster

The KATRIN experiment aims to determine the incoherent mass of the electron neutrino with a sensitivity of 0.2 eV at a 90 % confidence level. That is accomplished by measuring the endpoint of the Tritium beta spectrum with an integrating electrostatic spectrometer of the MAC-E-Filter type. If there is a sterile neutrino with an additional mass state which has a non-vanishing mixture with the electron neutrino, it can in principle be detected in the tritium beta spectrum. This talk focuses on the possibility of a sterile neutrino in the keV mass range which is a suitable dark matter candidate. Currently, simulations are performed to evaluate the sensitivity of KATRIN to keV sterile neutrinos. The talk covers the approach of operating the spectrometer in a time-of-flight mode which may enhance the sensitivity and reduce systematics. The status of the simulations are presented and an outlook is given.

This work is partly supported by BMBF under contract number 05A11PM2.