Relativistic Cyclotron Radiation Detection of Tritium Decay Electrons as a New Technique for Measuring the Neutrino Mass

The shape of the beta decay energy distribution is sensitive to the mass of the electron neutrino. Attempts to measure the endpoint shape of tritium decay have so far seen no distortion from the zero-mass form, thus placing an upper limit of m_nu_beta < 2.3 eV. Here we show that a new type of electron energy spectroscopy could improve future measurements of this spectrum and therefore of the neutrino mass. We propose to detect the coherent cyclotron radiation emitted by an energetic electron in a magnetic field. For mildly relativistic electrons, like those in tritium decay, the relativistic shift of the cyclotron frequency allows us to extract the electron energy from the emitted radiation. We present calculations for the energy resolution, noise limits, high-rate measurement capability, and systematic errors expected in such an experiment.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Neutrino Experiments Come Closer to Seeing

The T2K experiment has measured the largest number of events associated with muon neutrinos oscillating into electron neutrinos, an important step toward seeing CP violation in neutrino interactions. Subject Areas: Particles and Field

Measuring Neutrino Masses Using Radio-Frequency Techniques

We describe a new technique by which the energy spectrum of low energy electrons can be extracted. The technique relies on the detection and measurement of coherent radiation created from the cyclotron motion of charged particles, such as electrons, in strong magnetic fields. The technique proposed relies on the principle that the frequency of cyclotron radiation emitted by the particle depends inversely on its Lorentz boost. Detection and measurement of the coherent radiation emitted is tantamount to measuring the kinetic energy of the electron. As the technique inherently involves the measurement of a frequency in a non-destructive manner, it can, in principle, achieve a high degree of precision and accuracy; estimated to be better than 1 part in 106 for electrons with kinetic energies between 5 and 50 keV. One immediate application of this technique is in the measurement of the endpoint spectrum from tritium beta decay, which is directly sensitive to the absolute mass scale of neutrinos

Annual Modulation of Cosmic Relic Neutrinos

The cosmic neutrino background (CvB), produced about one second after the Big Bang, permeates the Universe today. New technological advancements make neutrino capture on beta-decaying nuclei (NCB) a clear path forward towards the detection of the CvB. We show that gravitational focusing by the Sun causes the expected neutrino capture rate to modulate annually. The amplitude and phase of the modulation depend on the phase-space distribution of the local neutrino background, which is perturbed by structure formation. These results also apply to searches for sterile neutrinos at NCB experiments. Gravitational focusing is the only source of modulation for neutrino capture experiments, in contrast to dark-matter direct-detection searches where the Earth's time-dependent velocity relative to the Sun also plays a role.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure

Quantum blackjack: Advantages offered by quantum strategies in communication-limited games

We examine the advantages that quantum strategies afford in communication-limited games. Inspired by the card game blackjack, we focus on cooperative, two-party sequential games in which a single classical bit of communication is allowed from the player who moves first to the player who moves second. Within this setting, we explore the usage of quantum entanglement between the players and find analytic and numerical conditions for quantum advantage over classical strategies. Using these conditions, we study a family of blackjack-type games with varying numbers of card types, and find a range of parameters where quantum advantage is achieved