SMuK 2023 – scientific programme
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T: Fachverband Teilchenphysik
T 66: Neutrinos II
T 66.3: Talk
Wednesday, March 22, 2023, 16:20–16:35, POT/0251
Calorimetric methods for monitoring Atomic hydrogen beam for Project 8 — •Christian Matthé, Felix Wünsch, and Sebastian Böser for the Project 8 collaboration — Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz
The Project 8 collaboration aims to determine the absolute neutrino mass with a sensitivity of 40 meV by measuring the tritium decay spectrum around the endpoint energy. For this level of precision it is necessary to use atomic tritium, since molecular tritium sensitivity is limited by the molecular final state distribution to about 100 meV.
A flux of ≈1019 atoms/s from the source will be required to inject a beam with ≈ 1015 atoms/s into the detection volume after cooling and state selection inefficiencies. For monitoring this beam, we have built a detector that uses a wire with a micrometer-scale diameter intersecting the beam on which a small fraction of the beam’s hydrogen atoms recombine into molecules. The energy released heats the wire and produces a measurable change in its resistance. Such a detector is suitable for both development work and for minimally disruptive online monitoring in the final experiment.
Additionally, we are working on a calorimetrically estimating the fraction of molecules being split by measuring the surplus power our thermal atom source draws when dissociating hydrogen.
In this talk I will present results from tests of both methods.