Decay microscope for trapped neon isotopes

Abstract

We review the design, simulation, and tests, of a detection system for measuring the energy distribution of daughter nuclei recoiling from the beta-decay of laser trapped neon isotopes. This distribution is sensitive to several new physics effects in the weak sector. Our 'decay microscope' relies on imaging the velocity distribution of high energy recoil ions in coincidence with electrons shaken-off in the decay. We demonstrate by way of Monte-Carlo simulation, that the nuclear microscope increases the statistical sensitivity of kinematic measurements to the underlying energy distribution, and limits the main systematic bias caused by discrepancy in the trap position along the detection axis.

$^{23}$Ne Production at SARAF-I

“…In basic science, one such application is the search for Beyond Standard Model (BSM) physics in the weak interaction, through precision measurements of decay parameters such as the beta-neutrino angular correlation coefficient [6]. This observable is predominantly measured today using ion or atom traps [7,8,9].…”

“…Laser trapping of noble gas atoms is inefficient due to the need to excite them to a meta-stable state [16,17]. To obtain enough statistics from roughly 10 7 detected events [18,9] within a reasonable beam time, one needs to produce these atoms in ample quantities >10 8atoms /sec. Only high-current accelerators can produce enough atoms to feed the trap.…”

“…BeO and NaCl targets were designed and built for production of radioisotopes by neutron-induced nuclear reactions: 9 Be(n,α) 6 He and 23 Na(n,p) 23 Ne, respectively. The half-lives of the radioisotopes are 806.89 ms [21] and 37.148 sec [22], respectively.…”

$β$-nuclear-recoil correlation from $^6$He decay in a laser trap

“…[7,10,11,16], they demonstrate the first precise determination of β-recoil correlations from a neutral atom trap of a noble gas. The work identified sources of limitations that affect similar experiments searching for scalar and tensor currents in nuclear beta decays [19,32,33], studies of atomic shake-off processes [34], nuclear spectroscopy [35]…”

β -Nuclear-Recoil Correlation from He6 Decay in a Laser Trap

“…[7,11,12,17], they demonstrate the first precise determination of β-recoil correlations from a neutral atom trap of a noble gas. The Letter identified sources of limitations that affect similar experiments searching for scalar and tensor currents in nuclear beta decays [20,32,33], studies of atomic shakeoff processes [34], nuclear spectroscopy [35], and searches for dark matter [36].…”