Search for keV-scale sterile neutrinos with the first KATRIN data
Abstract In this work we present a keV-scale sterile-neutrino search with a low-tritium-activity data set of the KATRIN experiment, acquired in a commissioning run in 2018. KATRIN performs a spectroscopic measurement of the tritium...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
2023
|
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/152195 |
| Summary: | Abstract
In this work we present a keV-scale sterile-neutrino search with a low-tritium-activity data set of the KATRIN experiment, acquired in a commissioning run in 2018. KATRIN performs a spectroscopic measurement of the tritium
$$\upbeta $$
β
-decay spectrum with the main goal of directly determining the effective electron anti-neutrino mass. During this commissioning phase a lower tritium activity facilitated the measurement of a wider part of the tritium spectrum and thus the search for sterile neutrinos with a mass of up to
$$1.6\, \textrm{keV}$$
1.6
keV
. We do not find a signal and set an exclusion limit on the sterile-to-active mixing amplitude of
$$\sin ^2\theta < 5\times 10^{-4}$$
sin
2
θ
<
5
×
10
-
4
(
$$95\%$$
95
%
C.L.) at a mass of 0.3 keV. This result improves current laboratory-based bounds in the sterile-neutrino mass range between 0.1 and 1.0 keV. |
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