(GIST OF SCIENCE REPORTER) KARLSRUHE TRITIUM NEUTRINO EXPERIMENT AND NEUTRINO MASS

(JULY-2025)

The Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino Experiment closely observed the disintegration of molecular tritium to estimate the neutrino mass.

The collaboration said that this sum couldn’t exceed 8.8 x 10-7 times the heft of the electron, a 2x improvement on the previous best constraint.
The KATRIN experiment is designed to determine the mass of the neutrino, which is considered the hardest-to- detect subatomic particle in the universe.
KATRIN uses a massive detector in an attempt to measure the mass of the neutrino.
The experiment closely observes the disintegration of molecular tritium to estimate the neutrino mass.
Specifically, it focuses on the maximum energies of electrons emitted when tritium decays, as these energies carry information about the neutrino’s mass.
To set the latest constraint, KATRIN collected data from no fewer than 36 million electrons.
Neutrino
A neutrino is a fundamental particle, meaning it is not known to be made of any smaller pieces.
It is a member of the same group of fundamental particles as the electron. However, unlike electrons, neutrinos have no electric charge.

Interaction with Matter: Neutrinos are often referred to as ghostly particles because they almost never interact with other matter. They interact only through gravity and the weak force, which is significant only at very short distances.
Mass and Oscillation: While scientists initially thought neutrinos were massless, it has been established that at least two of the three types of neutrinos have more than zero mass.

KATRIN Experiment: Aims to directly measure the neutrino mass.
PROSPECT: This experiment uses neutrinos from reactors to search for unknown types of neutrinos beyond the three already discovered.

Fermilab Short-Baseline Neutrino program: This program uses neutrinos from accelerators to search for unknown types of neutrinos.
MAJORANA Demonstrator Experiment: Located deep under the Earth’s surface, this experiment is designed to determine whether neutrinos are their own antiparticles.
NOvA and the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE): These experiments study the phenomenon of neutrino oscillation, which examines how mass differs between various types of neutrinos.