HEP Colloquia 2024

by Shailaja Mohanty

Wednesday 22 May 2024, 14:00 → 15:30 Europe/Rome

Sala Consiliare (Department of Physics)

Search for Sterile Neutrino with the KATRIN Experiment and Insights into Neutrino Mass Analysis 

The KArlsruhe TRItium Neutrino (KATRIN) experiment aims to determine the mass of the electron antineutrino through kinematic measurements of tritium beta-decay, with a target sensitivity of up to 0.3 eV$/c^2$ (90% C.L.). In 2022, KATRIN achieved the most stringent limit on neutrino mass, reporting $m_\nu < 0.8$ eV$/c^2$ (90% C.L.), based on data from its initial two science runs in 2019. In addition to neutrino mass determination, KATRIN's precise measurement of the beta-decay spectrum near the kinematic endpoint enables the search for nonstandard or sterile neutrinos with masses in the eV range.
This talk will cover the first results of KATRIN's searches for neutrino mass and sterile neutrinos, the analysis framework for new datasets from the first five science runs, and relevant systematic effects. It will also discuss KATRIN's sensitivity to eV-scale sterile neutrinos from the latest dataset and compare results with other sterile neutrino searches. Finally, the talk will provide an outlook on other Beyond Standard Model (BSM) topics that KATRIN has the potential to explore.

INFN_Cagliari_KATRIN-S.Mohanty (1).pdf