核β衰变后兆电子伏特量级电子/正电子回旋辐射的首次观测

First Observation of Cyclotron Radiation from MeV-Scale e^{±} following Nuclear β Decay.

作者信息

Byron W, Harrington H, Taylor R J, DeGraw W, Buzinsky N, Dodson B, Fertl M, García A, Garvey G, Graner B, Guigue M, Hayen L, Huyan X, Khaw K S, Knutsen K, McClain D, Melconian D, Müller P, Novitski E, Oblath N S, Robertson R G H, Rybka G, Savard G, Smith E, Stancil D D, Sternberg M, Storm D W, Swanson H E, Tedeschi J R, VanDevender B A, Wietfeldt F E, Young A R, Zhu X

机构信息

Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA.

Center for Nuclear Physics and Astrophysics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA.

出版信息

Phys Rev Lett. 2023 Aug 25;131(8):082502. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.131.082502.

DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.131.082502

PMID:37683153

Abstract

We present an apparatus for detection of cyclotron radiation yielding a frequency-based β^{±} kinetic energy determination in the 5 keV to 2.1 MeV range, characteristic of nuclear β decays. The cyclotron frequency of the radiating β particles in a magnetic field is used to determine the β energy precisely. Our work establishes the foundation to apply the cyclotron radiation emission spectroscopy (CRES) technique, developed by the Project 8 Collaboration, far beyond the 18-keV tritium endpoint region. We report initial measurements of β^{-}'s from ^{6}He and β^{+}'s from ^{19}Ne decays to demonstrate the broadband response of our detection system and assess potential systematic uncertainties for β spectroscopy over the full (MeV) energy range. To our knowledge, this is the first direct observation of cyclotron radiation from individual highly relativistic β's in a waveguide. This work establishes the application of CRES to a variety of nuclei, opening its reach to searches for new physics beyond the TeV scale via precision β-decay measurements.

摘要

我们展示了一种用于探测回旋加速器辐射的装置，它能在5 keV至2.1 MeV范围内基于频率确定β±动能，这是核β衰变的特征范围。利用磁场中辐射β粒子的回旋频率来精确确定β能量。我们的工作为应用由8号项目合作团队开发的回旋加速器辐射发射光谱（CRES）技术奠定了基础，该技术的应用范围远远超出了18 keV的氚端点区域。我们报告了对6He衰变产生的β-和19Ne衰变产生的β+的初步测量结果，以展示我们探测系统的宽带响应，并评估在整个（MeV）能量范围内进行β光谱分析时潜在的系统不确定性。据我们所知，这是首次在波导中对单个高度相对论性β粒子的回旋加速器辐射进行直接观测。这项工作确立了CRES在各种原子核上的应用，通过精确的β衰变测量，使其能够用于探索TeV尺度以上的新物理。