Precision Penning trap mass measurements on exotic ions: status and perspectives

Abstract

Penning traps are powerful instruments for the precise and accurate mass determination of rare isotopes. At present, many Penning trap facilities installed at radioactive beam facilities provide key data for nuclear astrophysics, for the study of nuclear structure evolution far from stability, and the test of fundamental interactions. This article summarizes the present status and current limits in the field of high-precision Penning trap mass measurements on short-lived exotic ions.

First Use of High Charge States for Mass Measurements of Short-Lived Nuclides in a Penning Trap

“…Since their introduction into rare isotope research over twenty years ago [1,2], Penning traps have made major contributions to the exploration of the nuclear mass surface as evidenced by the large number of existing and proposed facilities [3] as well as the wealth of experimental results [4]. Advances in experimental techniques now allow measurements for virtually all low energy, rare isotope beams as Penning traps have been able to access nuclides with half-lives below 10 ms [5] as well as superheavies with production yields of less than 1 particle per second [6].…”