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The HOLMES project aims to directly measure the ν mass down to the eV scale using the electron capture decay (EC) of 163Ho. It will perform a precise calorimetric measurement of the end-point of the Ho energy spectrum looking for the deformation caused by a finite ν mass. The choice of 163Ho as source is driven by the very low Q-value of the EC reaction, which allows for high sensitivity with low activities (O(10 2 )Bq/detector), thus reducing the pile-up probability. A large array made by thousands of transition edge sensors based micro-calorimeters will be used. The calorimetric approach eliminates systematic uncertainties arising from the use of an external β source, and minimizes the effect of the atomic de-excitation process. The commissioning of the first implanted sub-array is scheduled for the end of 2018. It will provide useful data about the EC decay of 163Ho together with a first limit on ν mass.

HOLMES is a new experiment to directly measure the neutrino mass with a sensitivity as low as 0.4 eV. HOLMES will perform a calorimetric measurement of the energy released in the electron capture decay of 163 Ho. HOLMES will deploy a large array of low temperature microcalorimeters with implanted 163 Ho nuclei. HOLMES baseline detector is an array of 1000 microcalorimeters each with an implanted 163 Ho activity of about 300 Bq, an energy resolution FWHM of about 1 eV at the spectrum end-point ( Q ≈ 2.5 keV), and a time resolution of about 1 μs. Matching these performances requires a careful optimization of all components, from the microcalorimeters to the signal processing algorithms. We outline here the project technical challenges and the present status of the development.

The main goal in the HOLMES experiment is the neutrino mass measurement using an array of 1000 micro-calorimeters with standard metallic absorber. A good isotope for such measurement is the 163 Ho, those isotopes embedded in the metallic absorber will be 10 11 –10 13 . Since 163 Ho is not available in nature, a dedicated process must be set up to produce the amount needed for this neutrino mass experiment. The process with the highest born-up cross-section is the neutron irradiation of Er 2 O 3 enriched in 162 Er: 162 Er(n,γ) 163 Er → 163 Ho+ν e , where the decay is an EC with half-life of about 75 min and the (n,γ) is about 20 barns for thermal neutron. After the neutron irradiation in the oxide powder there are several radioactive isotopes which are potentially disturbing because of the background that they cause below 5 keV. The chemical separation of holmium from the irradiation enriched Er 2 O 3 powder is therefore mandatory and will be performed by means of ion exchange chromatography. On the end of those processes the oxide powder enriched in 162 Er will have the 163 Ho isotope number required. The holmium chemical state influences the end point of the EC spectrum, in order to avoid such effect it is necessary to embed in the absorber only the metallic isotope. Reduction and distillation technique allowed us to obtain a pure metallic holmium, starting from natural oxide holmium. This technique will be applied on the irradiated oxide powder to obtain the metallic 163 Ho, ready to be embedded in the micro-calorimeter absorber.