Wuppertal 2015 – scientific programme

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T: Fachverband Teilchenphysik

T 94: Niederenergie Neutrinophysik VI

T 94.1: Talk

Thursday, March 12, 2015, 16:45–17:00, I.13.71 (HS 28)

The Electron Capture in ¹⁶³Ho experiment — •Clemens Hassel for the ECHo collaboration — Kirchhoff-Institute of Physics, Heidelberg University, Germany

The Electron Capture ¹⁶³Ho experiment, ECHo, aims to investigate the electron neutrino mass in the sub-eV range by means of the analysis of the calorimetrically measured energy spectrum following the electron capture process of ¹⁶³Ho. The ¹⁶³Ho spectrum will be measured with array of low temperature metallic magnetic calorimeters (MMCs). With a first prototype of MMC having the ¹⁶³Ho source embedded in the absorber, we performed the first high energy resolution measurement of the EC spectrum. The achieved energy resolution was Δ E_FWHM=7.6  eV and the signal rise-time was τ = 130  ns. We aim to improve the performance of the detector to reach an energy resolution Δ E_FWHM<5  eV and a signal rise-time τ < 100  ns. We present the plan for a medium scale experiment, ECHo-1k, in which about 1000 Bq of high purity ¹⁶³Ho will be implanted in the optimized detectors. With about one year of measuring time and with a better knowledge of the EC spectral shape, which will be reached thanks to dedicated experiments, we will be able to achieve a sensitivity on the electron neutrino mass below 10 eV/c², improving the present limit of about one order of magnitude.