Sensitivity of Neutrino Mass Experiments to the Cosmic Neutrino Background

Abstract

The KATRIN neutrino experiment is a next-generation tritium beta decay experiment aimed at measuring the mass of the electron neutrino to better than 200 meV at 90% C.L. Due to its intense tritium source, KATRIN can also serve as a possible target for the process of neutrino capture, νe +3H \to 3He+ + e-. The latter process, possessing no energy threshold, is sensitive to the Cosmic Neutrino Background (CνB). In this paper, we explore the potential sensitivity of the KATRIN experiment to the relic neutrino density. The KATRIN experiment is sensitive to a CνB over-density ratio of 2.0x 10^9 over standard concordance model predictions (at 90% C.L.), addressing the validity of certain speculative cosmological models.

References in corpus (2)

• Charged current cross section for massive cosmological neutrinos impinging on radioactive nuclei
• Prospects for cosmic neutrino detection in tritium experiments in the case of hierarchical neutrino masses

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• Discriminating between Thermal and Nonthermal Cosmic Relic Neutrinos through Annual Modulation at PTOLEMY
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• New Constraint on the Local Relic Neutrino Background Overdensity with the First KATRIN Data Runs