Abstract:
Project 8 is a neutrino mass measurement experiment that uses the Cyclotron Radiation Emission Spectroscopy (CRES) technique to probe distortions in the tritium beta spectrum. The non-zero mass of the neutrino causes these distortions in the endpoint spectrum. While Project 8 has used molecular tritium as the source gas in the past, its internal molecular motion broadens the endpoint spectrum, which incurs a statistical penalty. Moving forward, the goal is to develop an atomic tritium source to mitigate this issue. I will introduce our plans to build an apparatus that cracks hydrogen isotopes into atomic form, then cools the atoms first with a small number of bounces from a cold surface and then by evaporation from a magnetically combined beam. These processes will keep the atoms away from surfaces that would allow them to recombine and will cool them to temperatures where they can be confided in a magnetic trap. I will focus on helium velocity profile measurements that serve as calibration methods for the detectors.