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Colloquium - Hamish Robertson (University of Washington) - Progress Toward Measuring the Mass of the Neutrino

Hamish Robertson -February 3, 2015 colloquium speaker
February 3, 2015
4:00PM - 5:00PM
1080 Physics Reserach Building - Smith Seminar Room - reception at 3:45 pm in the atium

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Add to Calendar 2015-02-03 16:00:00 2015-02-03 17:00:00 Colloquium - Hamish Robertson (University of Washington) - Progress Toward Measuring the Mass of the Neutrino The discovery of neutrino oscillations gives us proof that neutrinos have mass, the first direct contradiction of the minimal standard model.  But how much mass?  That is something oscillations cannot give, other than to tell us that the average of the three masses must be at least 0.02 eV.  Laboratory measurements of the beta spectrum of tritium have steadily advanced: the masses are now known to be less than 2 eV.  A very large and ambitious experiment called KATRIN that offers an order of magnitude gain in sensitivity is taking shape in Germany.  And a novel, very different idea has just this summer passed its proof-of-concept test.       1080 Physics Reserach Building - Smith Seminar Room - reception at 3:45 pm in the atium Department of Physics physics@osu.edu America/New_York public

The discovery of neutrino oscillations gives us proof that neutrinos have mass, the first direct contradiction of the minimal standard model.  But how much mass?  That is something oscillations cannot give, other than to tell us that the average of the three masses must be at least 0.02 eV.  Laboratory measurements of the beta spectrum of tritium have steadily advanced: the masses are now known to be less than 2 eV.  A very large and ambitious experiment called KATRIN that offers an order of magnitude gain in sensitivity is taking shape in Germany.  And a novel, very different idea has just this summer passed its proof-of-concept test.