Sensitivity of future tritium decay experiments to New Physics

• Published in: The journal of high energy physics Vol. 2023; no. 3; pp. 144 - 44
• Main Authors: Canning, James A. L., Deppisch, Frank F., Pei, Wenna
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 20.03.2023; Springer Nature B.V; SpringerOpen
• Subjects: Beta decay; Classical and Quantum Gravitation; Cyclotron radiation; Cyclotrons; Elementary Particles; Energy; Experiments; High energy physics; Laboratories; Measurement techniques; Neutrino Interactions; Neutrinos; Non-Standard Neutrino Properties; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Quantum Field Theories; Quantum Field Theory; Quantum Physics; Quarks; Radiation; Regular Article - Theoretical Physics; Relativity Theory; Sensitivity analysis; Specific BSM Phenomenology; Spectrum analysis; Sterile or Heavy Neutrinos; String Theory; Tritium; Neutrino Interactions; Non-Standard Neutrino Properties; Specific BSM Phenomenology; Sterile or Heavy Neutrinos
• ISSN: 1029-8479; 1029-8479
• DOI: 10.1007/JHEP03(2023)144

A bstract Tritium beta-decay is the most promising approach to measure the absolute masses of active light neutrinos in the laboratory and in a model-independent fashion. The development of Cyclotron Radiation Emission Spectroscopy techniques and the use of atomic tritium has the potential to improve the current limits by an order of magnitude in future experiments. In this paper, we analyse the potential sensitivity of such future searches to keV-mass sterile neutrinos and exotic interactions of either the active or sterile neutrinos. We calculate the relevant decay distributions in both energy and angle of the emitted electron with respect to a potential polarisation of the tritium, including the interference with the Standard Model case as well as incorporating relevant final state corrections for atomic tritium. We present projected sensitivities on the active-sterile neutrino mixing and effective coupling constants of exotic currents, demonstrating the potential to probe New Physics in tritium experiments.