Sterile neutrinos are a minimal extension of the Standard Model of Particle Physics. A promising model-independent way to search for sterile neutrinos is via high-precision beta spectroscopy. The Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino (KATRIN) experiment, equipped with a novel multi-pixel silicon drift detector focal plane array and read-out system, named the TRISTAN detector, has the potential to supersede the sensitivity of previous laboratory-based searches. In this work we present the characterization of the first silicon drift detector prototypes with electrons and we investigate the impact of uncertainties of the detector's response to electrons on the final sterile neutrino sensitivity.
@article{arxiv.2007.07136,
title = {Characterization of Silicon Drift Detectors with Electrons for the TRISTAN Project},
author = {S. Mertens and T. Brunst and M. Korzeczek and M. Lebert and D. Siegmann and A. Alborini and K. Altenmüller and M. Biassoni and L. Bombelli and M. Carminati and M. Descher and D. Fink and C. Fiorini and C. Forstner and M. Gugiatti and T. Houdy and A. Huber and P. King and O. Lebeda and P. Lechner and V. S. Pantuev and D. S. Parno and M. Pavan and S. Pozzi and D. C. Radford and M. Slezák and M. Steidl and P. Trigilio and K. Urban and D. Vénos and J. Wolf and S. Wüstling and Y. -R. Yen},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2007.07136},
year = {2020}
}