Bilenky, Samoil M.Mateev, Matey D.Petcov, Serguey T.2006-05-112011-09-072006-05-112011-09-072006-05-11Physics Letters B 639 (2006) 312-317https://openscience.sissa.it/handle/1963/1825We discuss the physics potential of future tritium beta-decay experiments having a sensitivity to a neutrino mass ~\sqrt{|\Delta m^{2}_{23}|}~5x10^{-2} eV. The case of three-neutrino mixing is analised. A negative result of such an experiment would imply that the neutrino mass spectrum is of normal hierarchical type. The interpretation of a positive result would depend on the value of the lightest neutrino mass; if the lightest neutrino mass satisfies the inequality min(m_j) << \sqrt{|\Delta m^{2}_{23}|}, it would imply that the neutrino mass spectrum is of the inverted hierarchical type.147280 bytesapplication/pdfen-USPreprint