Toward the Future: Upgrading the ⁶He-CRES Experiment with an Ion Trap

The ⁶He-CRES 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. The present apparatus works with noble neutral radioactive gases contained within a cylindrical volume, which also serves as an RF waveguide. Some sources of systematic uncertainty could be simplified by using a Penning trap to confine ions to the center of the decay volume. This combination of the CRES technique with ion trapping would add a powerful spectroscopic technique applicable to a wide variety of species at radioactive beam facilities.

The introduction of ions to the system requires new components for ionization and separation of the beam, as well as a radio-frequency quadrupole trap (RFQ) to cool and bunch the beam for efficient transport and injection into the Penning trap. The upgrade would also require altering the current geometry and RF structure of the waveguides. I will cover an overview of experimental constraints and limits, then discuss their solutions and status of the ion trap addition to the ⁶He-CRES experiment.