Speaker
Description
Knowledge of the electron antineutrino mass is crucial for further advancements in cosmology and particle physics. Although the KATRIN collaboration has already confined the possible parameter space below 0.45 eV by investigating the beta decay spectrum of tritium, the sensitivity of this method is physically limited by the excitation spectrum of decayed tritium molecules. Therefore, developing sources to produce atomic tritium is indispensable to increase experimental sensitivity.
Finding a suitable dissociator is the first step for the development of an atomic tritium source, and efforts to run a commercially available thermal atom dissociator with tritium – for the first time ever – are in progress at the Tritium Laboratory Karlsruhe. The experimental hardware is operational by now, and a by a factor of five miniaturized KATRIN tritium supply loop has been assembled as well. At this moment, we are working to establish a quadrupole mass spectrometer as a fit device to study the yield of said thermal dissociator before the system can be loaded with tritium.
The poster will present our current efforts to establish the mass spectrometer as suitable tool and illustrate our latest experimental results. Additionally, an overview of the hardware, including the spectrometer itself as well as the vacuum system, the thermal dissociator and the supply loop will be provided.
| Collaboration or Other Affiliation | Other |
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