Erlangen 2026 – scientific programme
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T: Fachverband Teilchenphysik
T 66: Neutrino Physics IV
T 66.2: Talk
Thursday, March 19, 2026, 16:30–16:45, AudiMax
Long-term evolution of the KATRIN background — •Florian Fränkle for the KATRIN collaboration — Institute for Astroparticle Physics (IAP), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
The KArlsruhe TRItium Neutrino (KATRIN) experiment is a large-scale effort with the objective to determine the effective electron anti-neutrino mass with an unprecedented sensitivity of better than 0.3 eV/c2 (90% CL) in a model-independent way based on precision β-decay spectroscopy of molecular tritium. KATRIN completed its neutrino mass measurement campaigns at the end of 2025 and so far has improved the upper bound on the effective electron-neutrino mass to 0.45 eV/c2 (90% CL) based on data collected before July 2021.
A major limiting factor for the KATRIN sensitivity is a background level which is an order of magnitude higher than the original design specification. This presentation will provide an overview of the long-term evolution of the background during the neutrino mass measurement campaigns and share insights on the underlying background mechanisms.
This work is supported by the Helmholtz Association and by the Ministry for Education and Research BMFTR (grant numbers 05A23PMA, 05A23PX2, 05A23VK2 and 05A23WO6).
Keywords: neutrino mass; KATRIN; background mechanism