HOLMES

B. Alpert; M. Balata; D. Bennett; M. Biasotti; C. Boragno; C. Brofferio; V. Ceriale; D. Corsini; P. K. Day; M. De Gerone; R. Dressler; M. Faverzani; E. Ferri; J. Fowler; F. Gatti; A. Giachero; J. Hays-Wehle; S. Heinitz; G. Hilton; U. Köster; M. Lusignoli; M. Maino; J. Mates; S. Nisi; R. Nizzolo; A. Nucciotti; G. Pessina; G. Pizzigoni; A. Puiu; S. Ragazzi; C. Reintsema; M. Ribeiro Gomes; D. Schmidt; D. Schumann; M. Sisti; D. Swetz; F. Terranova; J. Ullom

doi:10.1140/epjc/s10052-015-3329-5

2023 Impact factor 4.2

Particles and Fields

Open Access

Eur. Phys. J. C (2015) 75: 112
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-015-3329-5

Regular Article - Experimental Physics

The electron capture decay of $^{163}$ Ho to measure the electron neutrino mass with sub-eV sensitivity

B. Alpert¹, M. Balata², D. Bennett¹, M. Biasotti³^,4, C. Boragno³^,4, C. Brofferio⁵^,6, V. Ceriale³^,4, D. Corsini³^,4, P. K. Day⁷, M. De Gerone³^,4, R. Dressler⁸, M. Faverzani⁵^,6, E. Ferri⁵^,6, J. Fowler¹, F. Gatti³^,4, A. Giachero⁵^,6, J. Hays-Wehle¹, S. Heinitz⁸, G. Hilton¹, U. Köster⁹, M. Lusignoli¹⁰, M. Maino⁵^,6, J. Mates¹, S. Nisi², R. Nizzolo⁵^,6, A. Nucciotti⁵^,6^*, G. Pessina⁶, G. Pizzigoni³^,4, A. Puiu⁵^,6, S. Ragazzi⁵^,6, C. Reintsema¹, M. Ribeiro Gomes¹¹, D. Schmidt¹, D. Schumann⁸, M. Sisti⁵^,6, D. Swetz¹, F. Terranova⁵^,6 and J. Ullom¹

¹ National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Boulder, CO, USA
² Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS), INFN, Assergi, AQ, Italy
³ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Genova, Genoa, Italy
⁴ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Sezione di Genova, Genoa, Italy
⁵ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
⁶ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Sezione di Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
⁷ Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology (CALTECH), Pasadena, CA, USA
⁸ Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI), Villigen, Switzerland
⁹ Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL), Grenoble, France
¹⁰ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Sezione di Roma 1, Rome, Italy
¹¹ Multidisciplinary Centre for Astrophysics (CENTRA-IST), University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

^* e-mail: angelo.nucciotti@mib.infn.it

Received: 18 December 2014
Accepted: 19 February 2015
Published online: 10 March 2015

Abstract

The European Research Council has recently funded HOLMES, a new experiment to directly measure the neutrino mass. HOLMES will perform a calorimetric measurement of the energy released in the decay of $^{163}$ Ho. The calorimetric measurement eliminates systematic uncertainties arising from the use of external beta sources, as in experiments with beta spectrometers. This measurement was proposed in 1982 by A. De Rujula and M. Lusignoli, but only recently the detector technological progress allowed to design a sensitive experiment. HOLMES will deploy a large array of low temperature microcalorimeters with implanted $^{163}$ Ho nuclei. The resulting mass sensitivity will be as low as 0.4 eV. HOLMES will be an important step forward in the direct neutrino mass measurement with a calorimetric approach as an alternative to spectrometry. It will also establish the potential of this approach to extend the sensitivity down to 0.1 eV. We outline here the project with its technical challenges and perspectives.

© SIF and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2015