V. V. Golovko

WITCH: a recoil spectrometer for weak interaction and nuclear physics studies

An experimental set-up is described for the precise measurement of the recoil energy spectrum of the daughter ions from nuclear beta decay. The experiment is called WITCH, short for Weak Interaction Trap for CHarged particles, and is set up at the ISOLDE facility at CERN. The principle of the experiment and its realization are explained as well as the main physics goal. A cloud of radioactive ions stored in a Penning trap serves as the source for the WITCH experiment, leading to the minimization of scattering and energy loss of the decay products. The energy spectrum of the recoiling daughter ions from the β-decays in this ion cloud will be measured with a retardation spectrometer. The principal aim of the WITCH experiment is to study the electroweak interaction by determining the beta-neutrino angular correlation in nuclear β-decay from the shape of this recoil energy spectrum. This will be the first time that the recoil energy spectrum of the daughter ions from β-decay can be measured for a wide variety of isotopes, independent of their specific properties.

Precision measurements of the

The {beta}-asymmetry parameter A-tilde for the Gamow-Teller decay of {sup 60}Co was measured by polarizing the radioactive nuclei with the brute-force low-temperature nuclear-orientation method. The {sup 60}Co activity was cooled down to milliKelvin temperatures in a {sup 3}He-{sup 4}He dilution refrigerator in an external 13-T magnetic field. The {beta} particles were observed by a 500-{mu}m-thick Si PIN diode operating at a temperature of about 10 K in a magnetic field of 0.6 T. Extensive geant4 Monte Carlo simulations were performed to gain control over the systematic effects. Our result, A-tilde=-1.014(12){sub stat}(16){sub syst}, is in agreement with the standard-model value of -0.987(9), which includes recoil-order corrections that were addressed for the first time for this isotope. Further, it enables limits to be placed on possible tensor-type charged weak currents, as well as other physics beyond the standard model.

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Abstract The measurement of the β asymmetry parameter in nuclear β decay is a potentially very sensitive tool to search for non V – A components in the charge-changing weak interaction. To reach the required precision (percent level) all effects that modify the emission pattern of the β radiation, i.e. the geometry of the setup, the effect of the magnetic field on the trajectories of β particles as well as (back)scattering in the source, on the sample holder and on the detector, have to be correctly taken into account in the analysis of the data. A thorough study of these effects and a new method based on detailed GEANT4 Monte-Carlo simulations that was developed for this purpose is presented here. The code was developed for β asymmetry measurements by means of the Low Temperature Nuclear Orientation (LTNO) method, but can in principle be generalized to other experimental setups using other polarization techniques.

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The WITCH experiment will measure the recoil energy spectrum of the daughter ions in beta-decay. The main parts of the experiment are two Penning traps and a subsequent retardation spectrometer. The beta-decays take place in the ion cloud in the decay trap. Since the ion cloud is in vacuum and due to the cylindrical structure of the trap, the recoiling daughter ions can leave the cloud and the trap without any significant energy loss and can be energy analyzed in the retardation spectrometer. The WITCH experiment is set up foremost to study the electroweak interaction by measuring the beta-v angular correlation in nuclear beta-decay which can be inferred from the shape of the energy spectrum of the recoil ions. In the beginning the experiment will focus on pure Fermi decays which will allow to search for additional scalar coupling in the weak interaction. Since Penning traps have no restrictions regarding the element to be trapped the most suitable isotope can be picked for this purpose. The WITCH experiment is presently being set up at ISOLDE. Status and perspectives of the experiment will be presented in the following

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It has been claimed recently that half-lives of radioactive nuclei embedded in metals would be significantly affected by electron screening provided by the metal. The effect would further be strengthened at low temperatures. We have determined the half-life-of {sup 253}Es nuclei embedded in iron at temperatures between 4 K and 50 mK. Our results agree with the room temperature literature value within about 2% and show no dependence on temperature over a range of almost two orders of magnitude.

-asymmetry parameter in search for tensor currents in weak interactions

A new value for the hyperfine magnetic field of copper impurities in iron is obtained by combining resonance frequencies from experiments involving {beta}-NMR on oriented nuclei on {sup 59}Cu, {sup 69}Cu, and {sup 71}Cu with magnetic moment values from collinear laser spectroscopy measurements on these isotopes. The resulting value, i.e., B{sub hf}(CuFe) = -21.794(10) T, is in agreement with the value adopted until now but is an order of magnitude more precise. It is consistent with predictions from ab initio calculations. Comparing the hyperfine field values obtained for the individual isotopes, the hyperfine anomalies in Fe were determined to be {sup 59{Delta}69}=0.15(9)% and {sup 71{Delta}69}=0.07(11)%.

A GEANT4 Monte-Carlo simulation code for precision β spectroscopy

The WITCH experiment (Weak Interaction Trap for CHarged particles) is starting measurements at the ISOLDE facility at CERN at present. It has been set up to measure the energy spectrum of the recoiling daughter ions after nuclear beta decay for precision tests of the Standard Model of weak interactions. However, many other topics of interest are accessible. In this article, the possibilities of recoil spectroscopy with the WITCH experiment are discussed, as well as the principle of the setup and its present situation.

WITCH: a recoil spectrometer for β-decay

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR/ON) measurements with

{alpha}-decay half-life of {sup 253}Es in metallic Fe at temperatures between 4 K and 50 mK

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Hyperfine Field and Hyperfine Anomalies of Copper Impurities in Iron

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