Measuring the electron neutrino mass using the electron capture decay of 163Ho

TL;DR

This paper advocates for an international collaborative effort to measure the electron neutrino mass through calorimetric analysis of 163Ho decay, which could provide crucial insights into neutrino properties and fundamental physics.

Contribution

It proposes a new collaborative approach to determine the electron neutrino mass using calorimetric measurements of 163Ho decay, emphasizing its advantages over existing methods.

Findings

Current experiments show promising results with this technique

Calorimetric measurements offer a high benefit-to-cost ratio

Measuring electron neutrino mass provides unique insights into neutrino physics

Abstract

While the mass differences between neutrino mass states are known, their absolute masses and mass hierarchy have not yet been determined. Determining the mass of neutrinos provides access to physics beyond the Standard Model and the resulting value has implications for the growth of large-scale structure in the universe over cosmic history. Because of the importance of the topic, a number of efforts are already underway to determine the mass of neutrinos including direct kinematic measurements and indirect measurements of astrophysical phenomena that constrain the sum of the mass eigenstates through models of cosmic evolution. Here, we advocate for a collaborative international effort to perform a kinematic determination of the effective electron neutrino mass using calorimetric measurements of the decay of 163Ho. This effort is justified by the success of current experiments using the technique, its high benefit-to-cost ratio, the value of approaches with different systematic errors, and the value of measuring the electron neutrino mass rather than the electron anti-neutrino mass.