European Physical Journal C: Particles and Fields (Mar 2020)

First operation of the KATRIN experiment with tritium

  • Max Aker,
  • Konrad Altenmüller,
  • Marius Arenz,
  • Woo-Jeong Baek,
  • John Barrett,
  • Armen Beglarian,
  • Jan Behrens,
  • Anatoly Berlev,
  • Uwe Besserer,
  • Klaus Blaum,
  • Fabian Block,
  • Steffen Bobien,
  • Beate Bornschein,
  • Lutz Bornschein,
  • Heiko Bouquet,
  • Tim Brunst,
  • Thomas S. Caldwell,
  • Suren Chilingaryan,
  • Wonqook Choi,
  • Karol Debowski,
  • Marco Deffert,
  • Martin Descher,
  • Deseada Díaz Barrero,
  • Peter J. Doe,
  • Otokar Dragoun,
  • Guido Drexlin,
  • Stephan Dyba,
  • Frank Edzards,
  • Klaus Eitel,
  • Enrico Ellinger,
  • Ralph Engel,
  • Sanshiro Enomoto,
  • Dieter Eversheim,
  • Mariia Fedkevych,
  • Arne Felden,
  • Joseph A. Formaggio,
  • Florian M. Fränkle,
  • Gregg B. Franklin,
  • Heinz Frankrone,
  • Fabian Friedel,
  • Dominik Fuchs,
  • Alexander Fulst,
  • Kevin Gauda,
  • Woosik Gil,
  • Ferenc Glück,
  • Steffen Grohmann,
  • Robin Grössle,
  • Rainer Gumbsheimer,
  • Moritz Hackenjos,
  • Volker Hannen,
  • Julius Hartmann,
  • Norman Haußmann,
  • Martin Ha-Minh,
  • Florian Heizmann,
  • Johannes Heizmann,
  • Klaus Helbing,
  • Stephanie Hickford,
  • David Hillesheimer,
  • Dominic Hinz,
  • Thomas Höhn,
  • Bernhard Holzapfel,
  • Siegfried Holzmann,
  • Thibaut Houdy,
  • Mark A. Howe,
  • Anton Huber,
  • Alexander Jansen,
  • Christian Karl,
  • Jonas Kellerer,
  • Norbert Kernert,
  • Luke Kippenbrock,
  • Manuel Klein,
  • Christoph Köhler,
  • Leonard Köllenberger,
  • Andreas Kopmann,
  • Marc Korzeczek,
  • Alojz Kovalík,
  • Bennet Krasch,
  • Holger Krause,
  • Benedikt Kuffner,
  • Norbert Kunka,
  • Thierry Lasserre,
  • Luisa La Cascio,
  • Ondřej Lebeda,
  • Manuel Lebert,
  • Björn Lehnert,
  • Johann Letnev,
  • Fabian Leven,
  • Thanh-Long Le,
  • Steffen Lichter,
  • Alexey Lokhov,
  • Moritz Machatschek,
  • Emma Malcherek,
  • Martin Mark,
  • Alexander Marsteller,
  • Eric L. Martin,
  • Fotios Megas,
  • Christin Melzer,
  • Alexander Menshikov,
  • Susanne Mertens,
  • Matthias Meier,
  • Sebastian Mirz,
  • Benjamin Monreal,
  • Pablo I. Morales Guzmán,
  • Klaus Müller,
  • Uwe Naumann,
  • Holger Neumann,
  • Simon Niemes,
  • Mathias Noe,
  • Andreas Off,
  • Hans-Werner Ortjohann,
  • Alexander Osipowicz,
  • Ernst Otten,
  • Diana S. Parno,
  • Anna Pollithy,
  • Alan W. P. Poon,
  • J. Manuel Lopez Poyato,
  • Florian Priester,
  • Philipp C.-O. Ranitzsch,
  • Oliver Rest,
  • Rolf Rinderspacher,
  • R. G. Hamish Robertson,
  • Caroline Rodenbeck,
  • Petra Rohr,
  • Marco Röllig,
  • Carsten Röttele,
  • Miloš Ryšavý,
  • Rudolf Sack,
  • Alejandro Saenz,
  • Peter Schäfer,
  • Lutz Schimpf,
  • Klaus Schlösser,
  • Magnus Schlösser,
  • Lisa Schlüter,
  • Michael Schrank,
  • Bruno Schulz,
  • Hendrik Seitz-Moskaliuk,
  • Waldemar Seller,
  • Valérian Sibille,
  • Daniel Siegmann,
  • Martin Slezák,
  • Felix Spanier,
  • Markus Steidl,
  • Madlen Steven,
  • Michael Sturm,
  • Manfred Suesser,
  • Menglei Sun,
  • Denis Tcherniakhovski,
  • Helmut H. Telle,
  • Larisa A. Thorne,
  • Thomas Thümmler,
  • Nikita Titov,
  • Igor Tkachev,
  • Nikolaus Trost,
  • Korbinian Urban,
  • Kathrin Valerius,
  • Drahoslav Vénos,
  • Reiner Vianden,
  • Ana P. Vizcaya Hernández,
  • Marc Weber,
  • Christian Weinheimer,
  • Christiane Weiss,
  • Stefan Welte,
  • Jürgen Wendel,
  • John F. Wilkerson,
  • Joachim Wolf,
  • Sascha Wüstling,
  • Weiran Xu,
  • Yung-Ruey Yen,
  • Sergey Zadorozhny,
  • Genrich Zeller

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-020-7718-z
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 80, no. 3
pp. 1 – 18

Abstract

Read online

Abstract The determination of the neutrino mass is one of the major challenges in astroparticle physics today. Direct neutrino mass experiments, based solely on the kinematics of $$\upbeta $$ β -decay, provide a largely model-independent probe to the neutrino mass scale. The Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino (KATRIN) experiment is designed to directly measure the effective electron antineutrino mass with a sensitivity of $$0.2\hbox { eV}$$ 0.2eV ($$90\%$$ 90% CL). In this work we report on the first operation of KATRIN with tritium which took place in 2018. During this commissioning phase of the tritium circulation system, excellent agreement of the theoretical prediction with the recorded spectra was found and stable conditions over a time period of 13 days could be established. These results are an essential prerequisite for the subsequent neutrino mass measurements with KATRIN in 2019.