Doppler shifts in the KATRIN experiment

In the past few decades, neutrinos, which are predicted to be massless particles by the Standard Model of Particle Physics, have been shown to have non-zero mass. The absolute scale of this neutrino mass has significant implications in particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology. The KATRIN experiment is designed to measure this absolute scale by examining the beta decay spectrum of molecular, gaseous tritium source. In this thesis, the beta decay of this molecular tritium is simulated to study the effects of "Doppler shifts" in the energy of the emitted electrons due to the random thermal motion and fluid flow velocity of the differentially pumped tritium gas. Simulated spectra are presented for three different neutrino masses and the relative effects of the thermal and flow velocities are discussed.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Physics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2008

Author dc:creator

• Heine, Matthew K

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Joseph Formaggio.

• Physics.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/44462

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/44462