Atomic hydrogen beam characterization for the Project 8 neutrino mass experiment

There have been significant gains in characterizing neutrino properties in recent decades, however the absolute neutrino mass scale continues to be elusive. The Project 8 experiment seeks to probe this property directly via kinematic analysis of tritium beta decay in the endpoint region, where the spectral shape is most sensitive to distortions from a non-zero neutrino mass. This measurement is achieved using the cyclotron radiation emission spectroscopy (CRES) technique, a novel frequency-based approach. In order to achieve a design sensitivity of 40meV on the neutrino mass, it is vital to develop an atomic tritium source. This will allow Project 8 to avoid the smearing effect due to final states, which plagues experiments using molecular tritium. As a first step towards achieving this goal, an atomic hydrogen test stand has been developed. This test stand utilizes a thermal cracker to generate an atomic hydrogen beam with flows ranging 4 orders of magnitude, up to 20sccm. Characterization of this atomic hydrogen beam, as well as an analysis of the temperature-dependent dissociation efficiency, will be presented here.