Frankfurt 2014 – scientific programme

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HK: Fachverband Physik der Hadronen und Kerne

HK 46: Poster

HK 46.61: Poster

Thursday, March 20, 2014, 16:00–18:00, HZ Poster

Investigation of work functions for precision experiments to investigate the standard electroweak model — •Marcus Beck^1,2, Werner Heil¹, Ernst W. Otten¹, Christian Schmidt¹, and Alexander Wunderle¹ — ¹Institut für Physik, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Germany — ²Helmholtz-Insitut Mainz, Germany

The standard model of the electroweak interaction is tested with ever increasing precision by non-accelerator experiments, e.g. using beta decay. The precision of these experiments has reached a point where the variation of the work function of the materials used for electrodes starts to limit the sensitivity. We investigate these variations of the work function for the aSPECT and the KATRIN experiments using a scanning Kelvin probe and the photoelectric effect. In 2013 aSPECT had a successfull beam time at the cold neutron beam line PF1b at the Institut Laue Langevin to determine the ratio of the weak coupling constants g_A/g_V. KATRIN is being set-up at the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology to measure the absolute mass of the electron-antineutrino. In order to achieve the sensitivity goals of these experiments the variation of the work function of their electrodes in time and space have to be known at the level of 10 meV. Systematic studies of the work function of various surfaces covered with a thin gold layer will be presented.