Probing The Absolute Mass Scale Of Neutrinos

The experimental efforts of the Neutrino Physics Group at MIT center primarily around the exploration of neutrino mass and its significance within the context of nuclear physics, particle physics, and cosmology. The group has played a prominent role in the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, a neutrino experiment dedicated to measure neutrino oscillations from 8B neutrinos created in the sun. The group is now focusing its efforts in the measurement of the neutrino mass directly via the use of tritium beta decay. The MIT group has primary responsibilities in the Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino mass experiment, expected to begin data taking by 2013. Specifically, the MIT group is responsible for the design and development of the global Monte Carlo framework to be used by the KATRIN collaboration, as well as responsibilities directly associated with the construction of the focal plane detector. In addition, the MIT group is sponsoring a new research endeavor for neutrino mass measurements, known as Project 8, to push beyond the limitations of current neutrino mass experiments.