Background due to stored electrons following nuclear decays in the KATRIN spectrometers and its impact on the neutrino mass sensitivity

The KATRIN experiment is designed to measure the absolute neutrino mass scale with a sensitivity of 200 meV at 90% C.L. by high resolution tritium beta-spectroscopy. A low background level of 10 mHz at the beta-decay endpoint is required in order to achieve the design sensitivity. In this paper we discuss a novel background source arising from magnetically trapped keV electrons in electrostatic retarding spectrometers. The main sources of these electrons are alpha-decays of the radon isotopes (219,220)Rn as well as beta-decays of tritium in the volume of the spectrometers. We characterize the expected background signal by extensive MC simulations and investigate the impact on the KATRIN neutrino mass sensitivity. From these results we refine design parameters for the spectrometer vacuum system and propose active background reduction methods to meet the stringent design limits for the overall background rate

Commissioning of the vacuum system of the KATRIN Main Spectrometer

The KATRIN experiment will probe the neutrino mass by measuring the beta-electron energy spectrum near the endpoint of tritium beta-decay. An integral energy analysis will be performed by an electro-static spectrometer (Main Spectrometer), an ultra-high vacuum vessel with a length of 23.2 m, a volume of 1240 m^3, and a complex inner electrode system with about 120000 individual parts. The strong magnetic field that guides the beta-electrons is provided by super-conducting solenoids at both ends of the spectrometer. Its influence on turbo-molecular pumps and vacuum gauges had to be considered. A system consisting of 6 turbo-molecular pumps and 3 km of non-evaporable getter strips has been deployed and was tested during the commissioning of the spectrometer. In this paper the configuration, the commissioning with bake-out at 300{\deg}C, and the performance of this system are presented in detail. The vacuum system has to maintain a pressure in the 10^{-11} mbar range. It is demonstrated that the performance of the system is already close to these stringent functional requirements for the KATRIN experiment, which will start at the end of 2016.Comment: submitted for publication in JINST, 39 pages, 15 figure

Commissioning of the vacuum system of the KATRIN Main Spectrometer

The KATRIN experiment will probe the neutrino mass by measuring the -electron energy spectrum near the endpoint of tritium -decay. An integral energy analysis will be performed by an electro-static spectrometer (“Main Spectrometer”), an ultra-high vacuum vessel with a length of 23.2 m, a volume of 1240m3, and a complex inner electrode system with about 120 000 individual parts. The strong magnetic field that guides the -electrons is provided by super-conducting solenoids at both ends of the spectrometer. Its influence on turbo-molecular pumps and vacuum gauges had to be considered. A system consisting of 6 turbo-molecular pumps and 3 km of non-evaporable getter strips has been deployed and was tested during the commissioning of the spectrometer. In this paper the configuration, the commissioning with bake-out at 300 C, and the performance of this system are presented in detail. The vacuum system has to maintain a pressure in the 10$^{-11}$ mbar range. It is demonstrated that the performance of the system is already close to these stringent functional requirements for the KATRIN experiment, which will start at the end of 2016