Using krypton-83m to determine the neutrino-mass bias caused by a non-constant electric potential of the KATRIN source

2025/06/15 by M. Machatschek, Machatschek, Moritz
Physics and Astronomy · Engineering · #Neutrino Physics Research #Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research #Muon and positron interactions and applications

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2506.13829

Abstract

Precision spectroscopy of the electron spectrum of the tritium β decay near the kinematic endpoint is a direct method to determine the effective electron antineutrino mass. The KArlsruhe TRItium Neutrino (KATRIN) experiment aims to determine this quantity with a sensitivity of better than 0.3 eV (90 %~C.L.). An inhomogeneous electric potential in the tritium source of KATRIN leads to a distortion of the β spectrum, which directly impacts the neutrino-mass observable. This effect can be quantified through precision spectroscopy of the conversion electrons of co-circulated metastable ^83mKr. This work perturbatively describes the effect of the source potential on the recorded spectra, and thus establishes the leading-order observables of this effect.

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