Direct mass measurements of 194Hg and 194Au: A new route to the neutrino mass determination?

The study of nuclear electron capture (EC) offers an exciting alternative for the determination of the neutrino mass. Whereas only tritium and 187Re can be used in the case of β-decay experiments involving the anti-neutrino, a potentially large number of EC-nuclides can be used in experiments involving the monochromatic neutrino. This alternative to β-decay experiments requires an accurate measurement of QEC-values of appropriate candidates. In the present work we initiate a search for such a candidate and determined the QEC-value of the electron capture in 194Hg by direct mass measurements of 194Hg and 194Au. The new QEC-value of 29(4) keV determined by the ISOLTRAP Penning-trap mass spectrometer at ISOLDE/CERN forbids the K-capture for 194Hg. However, it allows a determination of the neutrino mass by a combination of a micro-calorimetric measurement of the de-excitation spectrum from L-capture in 194Hg and a comparable QEC-value remeasurement by high-precision Penning trap mass spectrometry.