Characterization of Ion Bunches using GOLIATH, the Gas-Operated Large Ion-bunch Atomic Trap for He6-CRES

β decay, the most prominent form of radioactive decay, is governed by the weak interaction. The goal of the He6-CRES collaboration is to search for physics beyond the standard electroweak model by finding a distortion in the β energy spectrum using the Cyclotron Radiation Emission Spectroscopy (CRES) technique. Currently, a gaseous source is used, but this brings up the problem of an energy-dependent β detection efficiency from beta particles that may or may not hit the walls of the chamber. To fix this issue, we are considering an upgrade to the experiment using ions and confining them to the center of the chamber using a Penning trap, far enough from the walls to obviate this source of systematic uncertainty. To load a Penning trap we provide it with bunches of ions that have a small energy and time spread. In order to achieve these requirements, a Radio Frequency Quadrupole (RFQ) trap is used along with a buffer gas, such as Helium, to bunch and cool the ions. Previous experiments show that most RFQs can create bunches on the order of 10⁴ ions per bunch; however, this would mean years of beam time for a successful CRES experiment. To conduct the experiment in a timely manner, bunches need to be on the order of 10⁶ ions per bunch. GOLIATH was designed for this purpose and simulations have shown that it can form these larger bunches. This poster will present GOLIATH, its expected capabilities and our progress in demonstrating its larger bunch sizes using an offline ion source.