Hannover 2013 – scientific programme

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A: Fachverband Atomphysik

A 10: Precision spectroscopy of atoms and ions II (with Q)

A 10.3: Talk

Monday, March 18, 2013, 17:00–17:15, F 428

Sensitive detection of fast, neutral hydrogen atoms for the Bound Beta-Decay (BoB) Experiment — •Josephine McAndrew — Technische Universität München

We are currently exploring methods to detect hydrogen atoms with 325.7 eV kinetic energy. These atoms form the decay signature of the theoretically-predicted three-body decay of the neutron into a hydrogen atom and an anti-neutrino. The challenge in designing and building such a hydrogen detector lies in the small predicted branching ratio for this decay (~10^-6 of the three-body decay), the low energy of the atoms and the requirement to identify them over background hydrogen. This talk will describe our preliminary work investigating three possible detection schemes: quenching of H(2s) atoms and subsequent detection of the resulting Lyman-α photon, charge-exchange of hydrogen atoms in argon gas and laser ionisation.