Abstract:

Superconducting transition-edge sensors arrays can be used to probe the properties of neutrinos both through the measurement of the cosmic microwave background and by measuring the energy spectrum of certain nuclear decays. I will describe constraints recently set on the absolute masses of neutrino species and the possibility of additional sterile neutrinos by superconducting transition-edge-sensor arrays on ground-based telescopes in combination with the WMAP and Planck satellites. I will also describe the potential for complementary, model-independent determination of the electron neutrino mass using similar superconducting sensors through the calorimetric measurement of the energy spectrum of electron-capture decay in Holmium-163.