Resonant recombination at ion storage rings: a conceptual alternative for isotope shift and hyperfine studies

Abstract

Sharp resonant structures in the cross section of the atomic electron-ion collision process of dielectronic recombination are exploited to study isotope shifts and hyperfine interaction of heavy highly-charged ions. This novel approach provides

Atomic physics techniques for studying nuclear ground state properties, fundamental interactions and symmetries: status and perspectives

“…As reported by Carsten Brandau [65,66] it was demonstrated at GSI that dielectronic-recombination spectra recorded in a storage ring are sensitive to changes in charge radii, using the 142,150 Nd 57+ pair of lithium-like isotopes. The same is true for the Lamb shift [15] and the g-factor [67] of the bound electron in highly charged heavy ions with one or very few bound electrons.…”

Radioactive decays of highly-charged ions

“…Furthermore, since a low energy storage ring CRYRING is being constructed downstream the ESR [170] a backwards connection of the FAIR facilities with the ESR-CRYRING would offer a great potential for physics with slow cold ion or antiproton beams. With CRYRING, ESR, CR, and HESR, FAIR will offer stable and radioactive HCIs in a broad and continuous range of energies from a few hundreds keV/u (CRYRING) until 5-6 GeV/u (HESR) thus allowing for unique atomic and nuclear physics experiments (see, e.g., [172,173,174,175,176,177,178,179,180,181,182,183]). …”

Nuclear physics experiments with ion storage rings

“…1, by installing a production target in the stripper-foil station. The separation from inevitable contaminants is achieved inside the storage ring [39]. This is illustrated in Fig.…”

“…A comparatively new approach to perform isotope shift (IS) and hyperfine splitting experiments of stable and artificially synthesised radioisotopes as well as lifetime measurements of long-lived nuclear isomeric states relies on the atomic resonant electron capture process of dielectronic recombination (DR) [39,111,112,113,114,115]. In DR, free electrons with matching kinetic energy are captured resonantly with simultaneous excitation of an already bound electron resulting in a doubly excited autoionizing atomic configuration.…”