Institute for Advanced Study Informal Astrophysics Seminar

The direct detection of relic neutrinos from the Big Bang is one of the greatest challenges in experimental particle physics. The basic concepts were laid out in a paper by Steven Weinberg in 1962. At that time the tritium endpoint spectrum could be measured with an energy resolution of 120eV. Since the development of cryogenic TES calorimetry, the potential for sub-eV energy resolution is now a possibility. A small-scale prototype using two superconducting magnets, a MAC-E filter, and a 100 microgram tritium source is near completion at PPPL. The design concepts will be validated with this setup in the coming year. The outcome will be a proposal based on proven technologies for a large-scale 100 gram tritium experiment at PPPL with the capability to detect the relic neutrino background or to rule out one of the most widely accepted predictions in cosmology.