RI congratulates KATRIN collaboration on first result

RI Research Instruments provides systems and solutions for research and industry. One of the special solutions RI delivered in the past years is the windowless gaseous tritium source (WGTS) for the Karlsruhe TRItium Neutrino Experiment at KIT, a complex machine with the ambitious goal of determining the mass of neutrinos, very light elementary particles that are extremely elusive and difficult to measure. Now the KATRIN collaboration published its first result, the most precise measurement yet of the maximum mass of neutrinos, and we from RI send our congratulations on this big success.

The WGTS, which RI delivered to Karlsruhe in 2015, is a 15 m long, 5 m high, 1.5 m wide and 25 t heavy system housing five superconducting solenoids and five cryogenic media circuits (liquid neon, liquid helium, liquid argon, liquid nitrogen and 40 K gaseous helium) inside a common vacuum vessel. It ensures well controlled conditions for the creation of the beta-electrons which are analyzed for their energy in the spectrometers to reveal the secret of the neutrino mass.
The very strict requirements and highest level of quality control standards posed challenges for the manufacturing of the WGTS, but the project was completed successfully and the KATRIN collaboration honored the achievements of RI with a supplier award in gold.