Overview of Project 8 and Progress Towards Tritium Operation

TL;DR

Project 8 employs Cyclotron Radiation Emission Spectroscopy to measure the tritium beta decay spectrum with high precision, aiming to determine neutrino mass and advancing towards its ultimate sensitivity with an atomic tritium source.

Contribution

This paper provides an overview of Project 8's phased development and recent progress in applying CRES for neutrino mass measurement using tritium.

Findings

Demonstrated the CRES technique for neutrino mass experiments

Progressed towards measuring the continuous tritium spectrum

Prepared for the first high-precision spectrum measurement

Abstract

Project 8 is a tritium endpoint neutrino mass experiment utilizing a phased program to achieve sensitivity to the range of neutrino masses allowed by the inverted mass hierarchy. The Cyclotron Radiation Emission Spectroscopy (CRES) technique is employed to measure the differential energy spectrum of decay electrons with high precision. We present an overview of the Project 8 experimental program, from first demonstration of the CRES technique to ultimate sensitivity with an atomic tritium source. We highlight recent advances in preparation for the first measurement of the continuous tritium spectrum with CRES.