Direct Neutrino Mass Experiments

The determination of the absolute neutrino mass scale is of fundamental importance in particle physics and cosmology. Apart from indirect methods (large scale structure formation in cosmology, time-of-flight measurements of Supernova neutrinos, searching for 0νββ decay) there is only one model-independent strategy to address the neutrino mass directly: investigating the kinematics of electrons from β decay. We present an overview of the experimental strategies as well as results from experiments investigating the kinematics of β decay. Activities to reach sub-eV sensitivity in the near future by analysing the electron energy of the 3H β decay near its endpoint are reported.