Speaker
Description
The Project 8 experiment aims to make a direct measurement sensitive to much of the unexplored range of neutrino masses. Past experiments used molecular tritium, which has a large energy smearing from its final states. Project 8 will use atomic tritium to reach a design sensitivity of $m_\beta\mbox{}\leq\mbox{}40\mbox{ }$meV. This requires $\mathcal{O}(10^{20})$ tritium atoms held at tens of mK in a several-cubic-meter magnetic trap, which translates to a requirement of $>10^{19}$atoms/s at the atom source.
We present the program to develop an atomic tritium source, with contributions from the University of Mainz, the University of Washington, and LLNL. Our test stands are preparing technologies for the 1-cubic-meter scale Atomic Tritium Demonstrator in Phase III of Project 8, to confirm that we can produce, cool, and trap sufficient atomic tritium for the final Phase IV experiment.
Current work includes measuring the output of a tritium-compatible atom source with flows up to 20 times higher than previously published values, improvements in SNR via background reduction and subtraction, calculations of and corrections for systematic effects, calculations of the required atom flux into the trap, and simulations of the performance of both existing and new atom source designs.
This work is supported by the US DOE Office of Nuclear Physics, the US NSF, the PRISMA+ Cluster of Excellence at the University of Mainz, and internal investments at all institutions.
| Collaboration | Project 8 Collaboration |
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