2021/08/08 by S. Nussinov, Shmuel Nussinov, Zohar Nussinov · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Atom (system on chip) #Atomic physics #Cosmic neutrino background #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Electron #Electron neutrino #Graphene #KATRIN #Neutrino #Neutrino Physics Research #Neutrino detector #Neutrino oscillation #Nuclear physics #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Tritium #Zero-point energy #astro-ph.CO #cond-mat.mtrl-sci #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.105.043502
13 pages, 1 figure
arxiv created 2021/08/08 · openalex created_date 2021/08/16 · openalex publication_date 2022/02/01 · arxiv updated 2022/02/16 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
A recent preprint by Cheipesh et al. pointed out that the zero-point motion of tritium atoms bound to graphene may blur the measured energies of \ensuremathβ electrons. Smearing due to zero point motion is well known. Such an effect features in studies of the \ensuremathβ spectrum expected in experiments like KATRIN using diatomic tritium. The recent preprint may, however, challenge new planned experiments seeking to discover the cosmic neutrino background (CNB) neutrinos (and/or other neutrinos of masses smaller than 0.1 eV), which plan to use tritium adsorbed onto graphene or other materials. Our paper clarifies these issues and examines the more general problem of smearing induced by quantum uncertainty. We find that the effect of Cheipesh et al. is reduced considerably. The importance of the chemical evolution of the 3H atom hosting the tritium nucleus into a tightly bound neutral 3He atom is emphasized. We estimate the excess blurring caused by the dense spectrum near the lowest state of the graphene or other hosts of the tritium atom, generated by the electronic response to the ``sudden'' escape of the \ensuremathβ electron. Our analysis suggests yet larger effects and difficulties facing many experiments searching for small mass neutrinos. We speculate on a possible experimental setup, which could minimize quantum broadening.