The standard model of the electroweak interaction describes beta-decay in the
well-known V-A form. Nevertheless, the most general Hamiltonian of a beta-decay
includes also other possible interaction types, e.g. scalar (S) and tensor (T)
contributions, which are not fully ruled out yet experimentally. The WITCH
experiment aims to study a possible admixture of these exotic interaction types
in nuclear beta-decay by a precise measurement of the shape of the recoil ion
energy spectrum. The experimental set-up couples a double Penning trap system
and a retardation spectrometer. The set-up is installed in ISOLDE/CERN and was
recently shown to be fully operational. The current status of the experiment is
presented together with the data acquired during the 2006 campaign, showing the
first recoil ion energy spectrum obtained. The data taking procedure and
corresponding data acquisition system are described in more detail. Several
further technical improvements are briefly reviewed.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, conference proceedings EMIS 2007
(http://emis2007.ganil.fr), published also in NIM B:
doi:10.1016/j.nimb.2008.05.15
Abstract. The WITCH experiment (Weak Interaction Trap for CHarged particles) will search for exotic interactions by investigating the β-ν angular correlation via the measurement of the recoil energy spectrum after β decay. As a first step the recoil ions from the β − decay of 124 In stored in a Penning trap have been detected. The evidence for the detection of recoil ions is shown and the properties of the ion cloud that forms the radioactive source for the experiment in the Penning trap are presented.PACS. 23.40.Bw Weak-interaction and lepton (including neutrino) aspects -29.30.Aj Charged-particle spectrometers: electric and magnetic -37.10.Ty ion trapping
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