The KATRIN Pre-Spectrometer at reduced Filter Energy

TL;DR

This paper discusses reducing the filter energy of the KATRIN pre-spectrometer to mitigate Penning trap-induced background, supported by measurements and complex simulations to improve neutrino mass measurement sensitivity.

Contribution

It introduces a method to lower the pre-spectrometer filter energy, reducing background noise in the KATRIN experiment, validated through measurements and detailed simulations.

Findings

Filter energy can be reduced by several keV.

Reduced filter energy diminishes Penning trap effects.

Simulations confirm the effectiveness of energy reduction.

Abstract

The KArlsruhe TRItium Neutrino experiment, KATRIN, will determine the mass of the electron neutrino with a sensitivity of 0.2 eV (90% C.L.) via a measurement of the beta-spectrum of gaseous tritium near its endpoint of E_0 =18.57 keV. An ultra-low background of about b = 10 mHz is among the requirements to reach this sensitivity. In the KATRIN main beam-line two spectrometers of MAC-E filter type are used in a tandem configuration. This setup, however, produces a Penning trap which could lead to increased background. We have performed test measurements showing that the filter energy of the pre-spectrometer can be reduced by several keV in order to diminish this trap. These measurements were analyzed with the help of a complex computer simulation, modeling multiple electron reflections both from the detector and the photoelectric electron source used in our test setup.