Neutrinos are fundamental, lightweight particles: Electrically neutral, produced in processes like radioactive decay and nuclear reactions (e.g., in the sun). Their mass is unknown but tiny, less than a millionth of an electron’s mass.
KATRIN’s Goal: The Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino experiment in Germany aims to precisely measure the mass of the electron antineutrino.
Studies tritium decay, focusing on the emitted electron’s energy, which is affected by the neutrino’s mass. Measuring electron energies helps estimate the neutrino’s mass upper limit.
Latest KATRIN Finding: Reduced the upper limit of the neutrino mass to less than 0.45 electron volts (eV). This
is a significant improvement (nearly 50% reduction) based on precise measurements of 36 million electrons from tritium decay.
Significance of Neutrino Mass Measurement: Crucial for understanding cosmology (dark matter/dark energy) and developing theories beyond the Standard Model of particle physics.
India’s Contribution: The proposed India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) in Tamil Nadu will focus on studying atmospheric neutrinos.
