Bonn 2020 – scientific programme

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HK: Fachverband Physik der Hadronen und Kerne

HK 19: Fundamental Symmetries II

HK 19.2: Group Report

Tuesday, March 31, 2020, 17:30–18:00, J-HS B

Muonic X-ray measurements with the MiniBall germanium detector array. — •Frederik Wauters — Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz

Negative muons at rest quickly get captured by nearby atoms in highly excited atomic states. The muonic atom de-excites until the muon ends up in the 1S orbital. The photons emitted during this process are called muonic X-rays. Due to the large overlap between the muon wave function and the nucleus, they are sensitive to the nuclear size and structure and short range interactions. The MuX collaboration performs muonic X-ray measurements at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) with medium- and high-Z nuclei. The physics program focuses on atomic parity violation (APV), with first measurements performed in 2017 and 2018. During the fall of 2019, the high-resolution MiniBall germanium detector array was brought from the ISOLDE/CERN facility to PSI. This opportunity sparked an extensive and diverse measurement program. In this talk I will give a summary of this year's campaign. The main goal of the 2019 run was to measure the muonic X-rays of 226Ra to determine it's charge radius. Radium is a promising candidate for a high-precision APV measurement at low Q2. We also measured the 2S1S transition in muonic Zn, investigating the feasibility of an experiment measuring APV directly with muonic atoms. Two weeks of beam time were dedicated to investigate nuclei of interest for neutrinoless double beta-decay experiments. In addition, muonic X-ray spectroscopy measurements were performed on archaeological artifacts to determine their elemental and isotopic composition.