Single-Electron Detection and Spectroscopy via Relativistic Cyclotron Radiation

Abstract

It has been understood since 1897 that accelerating charges must emit electromagnetic radiation. Although first derived in 1904, cyclotron radiation from a single electron orbiting in a magnetic field has never been observed directly. We demonstrate single-electron detection in a novel radio-frequency spectrometer. The relativistic shift in the cyclotron frequency permits a precise electron energy measurement. Precise beta electron spectroscopy from gaseous radiation sources is a key technique in modern efforts to measure the neutrino mass via the tritium decay end point, and this work demonstrates a fundamentally new approach to precision beta spectroscopy for future neutrino mass experiments. For over a century, nuclear decay electron spectroscopy has played a pivotal role in the understanding of nuclear physics. Early measurements of the continuous β-decay spectrum [1] provided the first evidence of the existence of the weak force and the neutrino [2], and immediately hinted that the neutrino mass is small. Continuing this tradition, present efforts to directly measure the mass of the neutrino rely on precision spectroscopy of the β-decay energy spectrum of 3 H. Because the value of the neutrino mass is an input to the standard model of particle physics as well as precision cosmology, a precision measurement of the neutrino mass would represent a significant advance in our description of nature.The sensitivity of 3 H -based neutrino mass measurements has been improving over the past 80 years as a result of increasingly powerful electron spectrometry techniques [3][4][5][6]. The most sensitive experiments to date place a limit on the electron-flavor-weighted neutrino mass m β ≤ 2.05 eV=c 2 at 95% C.L. [7][8][9], m 2 β ¼

The “Non-Locality” of Entangled States Is Seeming Phenomenon

“…There are also methods of measurement of some quantities related to wave functions. For example, we may offer a direct nondestructive method for measurement of speed of electrons with small magnetic fields and Journal of Applied Mathematics and Physics direct measurement of radiation [18]. It is possible to carry out by scattering the direct measurement of spin orientation of an atom or electron.…”

The TITAN in-trap decay spectroscopy facility at TRIUMF

“…However, nearly 100% of the charged decay products are eliminated from the trap, since the β-particles have a high probability to both Coulomb scatter with the ion cloud, and cool via synchrotron radiation. The increase in scattering probability results from the high cyclotron frequency for electrons in a high-field environment [20]. Both of the above processes cause the decay products to drop below the critical angle and immediately escape the trap volume along the beam axis.…”

“…More recently, Penning traps have been considered to provide control over the decay environment [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20], where charged particles are guided along strong magneticfield lines. Therefore, further extension of this concept may be possible for performing high-sensitivity decay-spectroscopy measurements.…”

Cyclotron radiation emission spectroscopy signal classification with machine learning in project 8

“…The Project 8 experiment aims to perform an ultra-precise measurement of the tritium beta decay endpoint to directly measure or constrain the effective mass of the electron anti-neutrino, and to determine the mass hierarchy ordering. To this end, the collaboration has pioneered the cyclotron radiation emission spectroscopy (CRES) technique [1], in which electromagnetic radiation from the cyclotron motion of individual electrons in a magnetic field  B is used to reconstruct an energy spectrum from the angular frequency:…”