next up previous
Next: Solar Neutrinos Up: Implications of Neutrino Mass Previous: Theory of Neutrino

Laboratory Limits

There is no compelling laboratory evidence for non-zero neutrino mass. The direct limits from kinematic searches for the masses yield the upper limits [11]

 

where the upper limit on is a recent result from ALEPH [12], which makes use of both the invariant mass and the visible energy in the events. All of these are much smaller than the corresponding charged lepton masses. One disturbing feature is that the tritium decay experiments all yield negative values, with a weighted average , suggesting a common systematic or theoretical uncertainty in the experiments. Until this is understood the precise upper limit must be considered somewhat questionable.

Searches for neutrinoless double beta decay () are sensitive to the combination of Majorana massesgif , where it is assumed that the is a superposition of mass eigenstates. is a CP phase, allowing for cancellations between the different terms, as occurs for a Dirac neutrino. Currently, the most stringent upper limit is eV from the Heidelberg-Moscow Ge experiment [13]. There is some uncertainty in the precise value of the upper limit, since it depends on a theoretical calculation of a nuclear matrix element.

There have been many accelerator and reactor searches for neutrino oscillations. None have reported a compelling positive signal. The Los Alamos LSND experiment has recently reported [14] 9 candidate events for oscillations. However, an alternative analysis [15] of the same data with somewhat more stringent cuts obtains no signal above background. If the LSND results are confirmed, values for the mass-squared difference would be required.




Mon Nov 27 19:37:58 EST 1995