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Tritium Beta Spectrum Measurement and Neutrino Mass Limit from Cyclotron Radiation Emission Spectroscopy

A. Ashtari Esfahani1,∥, S. Böser2, N. Buzinsky3,¶, M. C. Carmona-Benitez4, C. Claessens1,2, L. de Viveiros4, P. J. Doe1, M. Fertl2, J. A. Formaggio3 et al. (Project 8 Collaboration)

J. A. Formaggio3, J. K. Gaison5, L. Gladstone6, M. Grando5, M. Guigue7, J. Hartse1, K. M. Heeger8, X. Huyan5,‡, J. Johnston3, A. M. Jones5,§, K. Kazkaz9, B. H. LaRoque5, M. Li3, A. Lindman2, E. Machado1, A. Marsteller1, C. Matthé2, R. Mohiuddin6, B. Monreal6, R. Mueller4, J. A. Nikkel8, E. Novitski1,*, N. S. Oblath5, J. I. Peña3, W. Pettus10,†, R. Reimann2, R. G. H. Robertson1, D. Rosa De Jesús5, G. Rybka1, L. Saldaña8, M. Schram5,**, P. L. Slocum8, J. Stachurska3, Y.-H. Sun6, P. T. Surukuchi8, J. R. Tedeschi5, A. B. Telles8, F. Thomas2, M. Thomas5,††, L. A. Thorne2, T. Thümmler11, L. Tvrznikova9,‡‡, W. Van De Pontseele3, B. A. VanDevender1,5, J. Weintroub12, T. E. Weiss8, T. Wendler4, A. Young12,§§, E. Zayas3, and A. Ziegler4 (Project 8 Collaboration)

  • 1Center for Experimental Nuclear Physics and Astrophysics and Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA
  • 2Institute for Physics, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, 55128 Mainz, Germany
  • 3Laboratory for Nuclear Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
  • 4Department of Physics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA
  • 5Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington 99354, USA
  • 6Department of Physics, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio 44106, USA
  • 7Laboratoire de Physique Nucléaire et de Hautes Énergies, Sorbonne Université, Université Paris Cité, CNRS/IN2P3, 75005 Paris, France
  • 8Wright Laboratory and Department of Physics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA
  • 9Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550, USA
  • 10Center for Exploration of Energy and Matter and Department of Physics, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405, USA
  • 11Institute of Astroparticle Physics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 76021 Karlsruhe, Germany
  • 12Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA

  • *en37@uw.edu
  • †pettus@indiana.edu
  • ‡Present address: LeoLabs, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA.
  • §Present address: Ozen Engineering, Sunnyvale, California 94085, USA.
  • ∥Present address: Department of Physics, Sharif University of Technology, P.O. Box 11155-9161, Tehran, Iran.
  • Present address: Center for Experimental Nuclear Physics and Astrophysics and Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA.
  • **Present address: Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, Newport News, Virginia 23606, USA.
  • ††Present address: Booz Allen Hamilton, San Antonio, Texas 78226, USA.
  • ‡‡Present address: Waymo, Mountain View, California 94043, USA.
  • §§Present address: Department of Astrophysics/IMAPP, Radboud University, P.O. Box 9010, 6500 GL Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 131, 102502 – Published 6 September, 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.131.102502

Abstract

The absolute scale of the neutrino mass plays a critical role in physics at every scale, from the subatomic to the cosmological. Measurements of the tritium end-point spectrum have provided the most precise direct limit on the neutrino mass scale. In this Letter, we present advances by Project 8 to the cyclotron radiation emission spectroscopy (CRES) technique culminating in the first frequency-based neutrino mass limit. With only a cm3-scale physical detection volume, a limit of mβ<155  eV/c2 (152  eV/c2) is extracted from the background-free measurement of the continuous tritium beta spectrum in a Bayesian (frequentist) analysis. Using Kr83m calibration data, a resolution of 1.66±0.19  eV (FWHM) is measured, the detector response model is validated, and the efficiency is characterized over the multi-keV tritium analysis window. These measurements establish the potential of CRES for a high-sensitivity next-generation direct neutrino mass experiment featuring low background and high resolution.

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Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

synopsis

Neutrino Mass in the Crosshairs

Published 6 September, 2023

The first frequency-based limit on the neutrino’s mass sets the stage for next-generation experiments.

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 131, 102502– Published 6 September, 2023
  • Received 22 March 2023
  • Revised 26 June 2023
  • Accepted 17 July 2023
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