Speaker
Description
Neutrino flavor oscillation experiments prove that neutrinos have non-zero masses. Extensions to the Standard Model of Particle Physics have been developed to explain the non-zero masses and can be directly tested by a measurement of the absolute neutrino mass scale. The mass of the electron antineutrino $m_\bar{\nu_e}$ can be determined from the highest precision measurement of the $\beta^-$-decay spectrum of tritium around its endpoint region (Q = 18.6 keV). The current state-of-the-art experiment, KATRIN, stretches all technological limits to probe the range of $m_\bar{\nu_e}$ down to $200\,\mathrm{meV/c^2}$. The Project 8 collaboration envisions a completely new path to measure $m_\bar{\nu_e}$. The recently demonstrated technique of Cyclotron Radiation Emission Spectroscopy (CRES) allows for a frequency-based measurement of the decay electron energy. I will present technical aspects of the apparatus used for the very first application of CRES to the measurement of the continuous decay spectrum of tritium.
This work is supported by the Cluster of Excellence “Precision Physics, Fundamental Interactions, and Structure of Matter" (PRISMA+ EXC 2118/1) funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) within the German Excel- lence Strategy (Project ID 39083149), the US DOE Office of Nuclear Physics, the US NSF, and internal investments at all institutions.
