Precise measurement of the $\beta$-asymmetry in the decay of magneto-optically trapped, spin-polarized $^{37}\mathrm{K}$
| Pub type: | Phdthesis |
| Citation: | fenker:PhD2016 |
| Status: | Published |
| Type: | Ph. D. |
| Journal: | Ph.D. Thesis, Texas A\&M University |
| Year: | 2016 |
| Month: | December |
| School: | Department of Physics & Astronomy, Texas A\&M University |
| Address: | College Station, TX, USA |
| URL: | http://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/1... |
| Abstract: | Precise low-energy measurements in nuclear β-decay provide constraints on possible physics beyond the standard model complementary to high-energy collider experiments. This thesis describes the most precise measurement of the positron asymmetry from a polarized nucleus to date. At the TRIUMF Neutral Atom Trap, atoms of the positron emitter 37K are confined in an alternating-current magneto-optical trap and spin-polarized to 99.13(9)% via optical pumping. The use of atom-trapping techniques allow for an exceptionally open geometry with the decay products escaping the trapping region unperturbed by the trapping potential. The emitted positrons are detected in a pair of symmetric detectors placed along the polarization axis to measure the asymmetry. The analysis was performed blind and considers β-scattering and other systematic effects. The result, Aβ (0) = −0.5707 ± 0.0018, places limits on the mass of a hypothetical W boson coupling to right-handed neutrinos to be > 300GeV/c^2 at zero-mixing as well as contributes to an independent determination of the Vud element of the CKM matrix. |
| Month_val: | 12 |
| Sig contrib: | D. Melconian |
| Keywords: | Beta decay, Electroweak, Nuclear, Optical pumping, Precision measurements, Right-handed currents, Standard model |
| Authors: | |
| Added by: | [DGM] |
| Total mark: | 0 |
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