Projektbeschreibung
Cleverer nach sterilen Neutrinos suchen
Dunkle Materie ist eine postulierte Form der Materie, die hauptsächlich über die Gravitation mit der sichtbaren Materie, einschließlich der Sterne und Planeten, in Wechselwirkung steht. Die Substanz steht für etwa 85 % der Materie im Universum und ungefähr ein Viertel ihrer Gesamtenergiedichte. Hauptkandidaten für dunkle Materie sind sterile Neutrinos mit einer Masse im Kiloelektronenvolt-Bereich (keV). Das EU-finanzierte Projekt SENSE hat das Ziel, die Existenz steriler eV-keV-Neutrinos in einem Laborexperiment mit Instrumenten von weltweit führender Empfindlichkeit zu erforschen. Im Mittelpunkt der Suche steht die Hochpräzisions-Betaspektroskopie. Die neuartige Idee besteht darin, ein den Stand der Technik übertreffendes Silizium-Drift-Detektorsystem zu entwickeln, das in Kombination mit dem groß angelegten Karlsruher Tritium Neutrino Experiment (KATRIN) das Fenster zu sterilen Neutrinosignalen öffnet, die nirgendwo sonst zugänglich sind.
Ziel
What is the nature of Dark Matter? What is the origin of the neutrino mass? These are two of the most compelling mysteries, physics is facing today. Despite its tremendous success, the Standard Model of Particle Physics does not provide an answer to these questions.
Since the Nobel-prize awarded discovery of the neutrino oscillations, which proofs that neutrinos have a mass, the existence of right-handed partners to the known left-handed neutrinos is a basic assumption. This minimal extension of the Standard Model provides a natural mechanism to generate neutrino masses and can lead to the existence of new types of neutrinos, so-called sterile neutrinos.
With a mass in the kilo-electron-volt (keV) regime, sterile neutrinos are a prime dark matter candidate. This dark matter type is especially appealing as it can act as warm dark matter, the existence of which would mitigate problems in our understanding of large-scale structures in the cosmos. The existence of sterile neutrinos with a mass in the eV-volt (eV) regime can resolve puzzling experimental anomalies observed in short-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments.
With SENSE, I aim to probe the existence of eV – keV sterile neutrino in a laboratory-based experiment with world-leading sensitivity. A unique way to perform this search is via high-precision beta spectroscopy. The novel idea of SENSE is to develop a beyond-the-state-of-the-art Silicon-Drift-Detector system, which, combined with the large-scale Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino (Katrin) experiment, will open the window to sterile neutrino signals not accessible elsewhere.
My role as analysis coordinator of the Katrin experiment and the expertise in semi-conductor detector technology of my independent Max-Planck-Research group put me in the ideal position to conduct this ambitious research project.
The discovery of sterile neutrinos would be a breakthrough in science with far-reaching consequences for our understanding of matter and the universe.
Wissenschaftliches Gebiet
Schlüsselbegriffe
Programm/Programme
Thema/Themen
Finanzierungsplan
ERC-STG - Starting GrantGastgebende Einrichtung
80333 Muenchen
Deutschland