Moritz Hackenjos Karlsruhe

The Tritium Loop Systems of the KATRIN Experiment(pdf)

The Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino (KATRIN) experiment is currently under construction at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and will start measuring the mass of the electron antineutrino with an unrivaled sensitivity of 200 meV/c² in a direct and model-independent way at the end of 2016. In order to achieve this ambitious goal KATRIN takes advantage of the well-known kinematic of the tritium beta-decay. A high-precision electromagnetic spectrometer allows the analysis of the shape of the beta-electron spectrum close to the endpoint energy of 18.6 keV. To achieve a background rate of only 10 mcps the tritium gas flow between the windowless gaseous tritium source and the spectrometer has to be reduced by over 14 magnitudes. In addition, the gas has to be cleaned and refreshed before it is pumped back into the source. This talk gives an overview on the complex tritium loop systems consisting of an inner and outer part with the ultimate goal to reach a long-term stable source activity.