Detecting cosmic neutrinos in tritium decay experiments

by Dr Mattias Blennow (KTH Theoretical Physics)

Tuesday 1 Apr 2008, 13:15 → 14:15 Europe/Stockholm

FA 32

One of the great achievements in the field of cosmology is the precise measurement of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). However, even greater obstacles have to be bridged in order to measure other relics from the early Universe, such as the cosmic neutrino background (CNB). I will discuss the prospects of detecting the CNB at the tritium decay experiments originally designed to measure the neutrino mass by looking at the beta decay energy spectrum. I will give extra attention to the worst case scenario where the neutrinos have very small and hierarchical masses.