Sensitivity of a Project 8 Cubic-Meter Scale Neutrino Mass Experiment

Project 8 aims to determine the absolute neutrino mass from the shape of the tritium beta decay spectrum near its endpoint. The collaboration has developed Cyclotron Radiation Emission Spectroscopy (CRES) as a frequency-based technique for measuring electron energies. Project 8 proposes to build a m³-scale Low Frequency Apparatus (LFA) with magnetically trapped atoms and a cavity detector that resonates at 560 MHz. The LFA will be upgradable to include an atomic tritium source, providing neutrino mass sensitivity in the range of 0.3-0.7 eV (90% CL, upper limit). This talk describes the sensitivity framework used by Project 8, with a focus on the LFA. We use an analytic model to account for features of CRES signal detection in a resonant cavity with trapped electrons and optimize design parameters.