Absolute Neutrino Mass Determination

Abstract

We discuss four approaches to the determination of absolute neutrino mass. These are the measurement of the zero-neutrino double beta decay rate, of the tritium decay end-point spectrum, of the cosmic ray spectrum above the GZK cutoff (in the Z-burst model), and the cosmological measurement of the power spectrum governing the CMB and large scale structure. The first two approaches are sensitive to the mass eigenstates coupling to the electron neutrino, whereas the latter two are sensitive to the heavy component of the cosmic neutrino background. All mass eigenstates are related by the $\Delta m^2$'s inferred from neutrino oscillation data. Consequently, the potential for absolute mass determination of each of the four approaches is correlated with the other three, in ways that we point out.