Astroparticle Physics in Germany

Performance of the KATRIN Source and Transport Section during First Tritium measurement campaign

Not scheduled

20m

Building 2321 (Hörsaalzentrum Physik/Mathematik/Chemie)

Speaker

Mr Carsten Röttele (KIT)

Description

The Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino (KATRIN) experiment aims to determine the effective neutrino mass with a sensitivity of $m_\nu=0.2$ eV/c$^2$ (90% C.L.) using electrons from the tritium $\beta$-decay. In the source and transport section the $\beta$-electrons are produced in the windowless gaseous tritium source (WGTS) and magnetically guided through two pumping sections to the spectrometer section, where their energy is analyzed. In order to achieve a constant decay rate, the gas column density inside the WGTS has to be stabilized and monitored. Therefore, a Laser-Raman spectroscopy (LARA) setup measuring the gas constituents and a forward beam monitor (FBM) sitting at the edge of the flux tube are installed. Furthermore the tritium flow has to be reduced by at least 14 orders of magnitude before entering the spectrometers, where it would induce a background signal. During the first tritium measurement campaign all introduced components ran simultaneously for the first time. In this poster the results will be presented. This work was supported by BMBF (05A17VK2), BMBF (05A17PX3), GRK1694, KSETA and the HGF.