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High Energy Physics - Phenomenology, hep-ph,High Energy Physics - Experiment, hep-ex
Abstract:
Past and current direct neutrino mass experiments set limits on the so-called
effective neutrino mass, which is an incoherent sum of neutrino masses and
lepton mixing matrix elements. The electron energy spectrum which neglects the
relativistic and nuclear recoil effects is often assumed. Alternative
definitions of effective masses exist, and an exact relativistic spectrum is
calculable. We quantitatively compare the validity of those different
approximations as function of energy resolution and exposure in view of tritium
beta decays in the KATRIN, Project 8 and PTOLEMY experiments. Furthermore,
adopting the Bayesian approach, we present the posterior distributions of the
effective neutrino mass by including current experimental information from
neutrino oscillations, beta decay, neutrinoless double-beta decay and
cosmological observations. Both linear and logarithmic priors for the smallest
neutrino mass are assumed.
