Measuring and Manipulating Radioactive Decay in a Penning Ion Trap

The Cryogenic Ultrahigh vacuum Radioactive Ion Experiment (CURIE) is a novel approach to the study of charged radioisotopes. The study of ionized radioisotopes has the potential to uncover suppressed, unpredicted decay modes and is of particular interest to nuclear astrophysics. For example, the calculation of expected solar neutrino flux and modeling propagation of galactic cosmic rays depend on the abundance and decay rate of charged unstable particles. Unstable ions have historically presented major obstacles to experimental study: in order to examine decay modes and rates of charged particles, they must be isolated from the environment to avoid electron attachment and recombination. If isolation time is limited, a large number of ions must be contained leading to space-charge limitations and decreased resolution. The CURIE Penning ion trap is an in-development static electromagnetic trap in a cryopumped vacuum environment that confines on the order of a hundred ions with single ion resolution for storage times exceeding several weeks, creating the necessary isolation for longitudinal studies of weak force interactions. This presentation will describe the first proposed half life measurements and their relevance in current nuclear astrophysics research. Initial experiments will focus on electron capture decay rates, which are in theory highly affected by the electronic configuration of the isotope, thus researchers can not only measure, but actively manipulate, radioactive decay rates.