Direct Search for the Neutrino Mass Scale with the KATRIN Experiment

Explore the cutting-edge research on neutrino mass measurement in this Stanford Physics colloquium. Delve into the Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino (KATRIN) experiment, which aims to determine the absolute neutrino mass scale through precise measurements of tritium beta decay. Learn about the experiment's innovative technologies, including a windowless gaseous molecular tritium source and a high-resolution MAC-E-Filter electron spectrometer. Discover how KATRIN has achieved sub-eV sensitivity and set new neutrino mass limits since 2019. Gain insights into the importance of neutrino mass for both cosmology and particle physics, and understand how this direct search method complements other approaches like neutrinoless double beta-decay and cosmological data analysis. The talk also covers future improvements to the KATRIN experiment and its potential expansion to investigate keV sterile neutrinos.