An absolute $\nu$ mass measurement with the DUNE experiment

TL;DR

The paper proposes using the DUNE liquid argon detector to measure the absolute neutrino mass via supernova neutrino time delays, achieving sub-eV sensitivity.

Contribution

It introduces a new method leveraging supernova neutrino timing in DUNE to set model-independent neutrino mass constraints with sub-eV precision.

Findings

Potential to reach sub-eV neutrino mass sensitivity.

Comparable to laboratory direct neutrino mass experiments.

Effective use of supernova neutronization burst timing.

Abstract

Time of flight delay in the supernova neutrino signal offers a unique tool to set model-independent constraints on the absolute neutrino mass. The presence of a sharp time structure during a first emission phase, the so-called neutronization burst in the electron neutrino flavor time distribution, makes this channel a very powerful one. Large liquid argon underground detectors will provide precision measurements of the time dependence of the electron neutrino fluxes. We derive here a new $\nu$ mass sensitivity attainable at the future DUNE far detector from a future supernova collapse in our galactic neighborhood, finding a sub-eV reach under favorable scenarios. These values are competitive with those expected for laboratory direct neutrino mass searches.