Ion Trapping for CRES Events: A GOLIATH Upgrade to the He6CRES Experiment

The He6CRES collaboration is developing the Cyclotron Radiation Emission Spectroscopy (CRES) technique to, for the first time, precisely measure the energy spectrum of βs over the range of a few MeV. The goal is to search for chirality-flipping interactions via the Fierz interference parameter, b_Fierz, to which the β spectrum shape is sensitive. The present apparatus contains neutral radioactive gases within a cylindrical volume, which also serves as an RF waveguide.The gas decays freely within the volume resulting in a region of energy dependent losses as βs with larger Larmor radii hit the wall. A proposed solution involves radially confining ions with the magnetic field and converting the decay volume into a Penning trap for axially confinement.This combination of the CRES technique with ion trapping would add the ability to use a powerful spectroscopic technique at radioactive beam facilities.

The addition of ions to the system requires new components for ionization and separation of the beam, as well as the Gas Operated Large Ion-bunch Atomic Trap for He6CRES (GOLIATH) to cool and bunch the beam for efficient injection into the Penning trap. The upgrade would also require altering the current geometry of the RF waveguides. I will cover an overview of experimental requirements of the ion trap upgrade, as well as discuss the status of GOLIATH.