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arXiv · 2210.11108

A lab scale experiment for keV sterile neutrino search

Y. C. Lee·H. B. Kim·H. L. Kim·S. K. Kim·Y. H. Kim·D. H. Kwon·H. S. Lim·H. S. Park·K. R. Woo·Y. S. Yoon
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Abstract

We developed a simple small-scale experiment to measure the beta decay spectrum of $^{3}$H. The aim of this research is to investigate the presence of sterile neutrinos in the keV region. Tritium nuclei were embedded in a 1$\times$1$\times$1 cm$^3$ LiF crystal from the $^6$Li(n,$\alpha$)$^3$H reaction. The energy of the beta electrons absorbed in the LiF crystal was measured with a magnetic microcalorimeter at 40 mK. We report a new method of sample preparation, experiments, and analysis of $^3$H beta measurements. The spectrum of a 10-hour measurement agrees well with the expected spectrum of $^3$H beta decay. The analysis results indicate that this method can be used to search for keV-scale sterile neutrinos.

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Y. C. Lee, H. B. Kim, H. L. Kim, S. K. Kim, Y. H. Kim, D. H. Kwon, H. S. Lim, H. S. Park, K. R. Woo, Y. S. Yoon. 2022-10-20. A lab scale experiment for keV sterile neutrino search. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10909-022-02879-6

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