arXiv subjects

Klaus Kirch

Publications and source records attributed to Klaus Kirch.

32 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2018

Studying Antimatter Gravity with Muonium

The gravitational acceleration of antimatter, gbar, has yet to be directly measured; an unexpected outcome of its measurement could change our understanding of gravity, the universe, and the possibility of a fifth force. Three avenues are apparent for such a measurement: antihydrogen, positronium, and muonium, the last requiring a precision atom interferometer and novel muonium beam under development. The interferometer and its few-picometer alignment and calibration systems appear feasible. With 100 nm grating pitch, measurements of gbar to 10%, 1%, or better can be envisioned. These could constitute the first gravitational measurements of leptonic matter, of 2nd-generation matter, and possibly, of antimatter.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2017

Statistical Uncertainty in Quantitative Neutron Radiography

We demonstrate a novel procedure to calibrate neutron detection systems commonly used in standard neutron radiography. This calibration allows determining the uncertainties due to Poisson-like neutron counting statistics for each individual pixel of a radiographic image. The obtained statistical errors are necessary in order to perform a correct quantitative analysis. This fast and convenient method is applied to data measured at the cold neutron radiography facility ICON at the Paul Scherrer Institute. Moreover, from the results the effective neutron flux at the beam line is determined.

physics.data-an↗

arXiv2016

Thin-disk laser scaling limit due to thermal-lens induced misalignment instability

We present an obstacle in power scaling of thin-disk lasers related with self-driven growth of misalignment due to thermal lens effects. This self-driven growth arises from the changes of the optical phase difference at the disk caused by the excursion of the laser eigen-mode from the optical axis. We found a criterion based on a simplified model of this phenomenon which can be applied to design laser resonators insensitive to this effect. Moreover, we propose several resonator architectures which are not affected by this effect.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2016

Progress Towards a Muonium Gravity Experiment

The gravitational acceleration of antimatter, $\bar g$, has yet to be directly measured but could change our understanding of gravity, the Universe, and the possibility of a fifth force. Three avenues are apparent for such a measurement: antihydrogen, positronium, and muonium, the last requiring a precision atom interferometer and benefiting from a novel muonium beam under development. The interferometer and its few-picometer alignment and calibration systems appear to be feasible. With 100 nm grating pitch, measurements of $\bar g$ to 10%, 1%, or better can be envisioned. This could constitute the first gravitational measurement of leptonic matter, of second-generation matter and, possibly, the first measurement of the gravitational acceleration of antimatter.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2016

Laser Spectroscopy of Muonic Atoms and Ions

Laser spectroscopy of the Lamb shift (2S-2P energy difference) in light muonic atoms or ions, in which one negative muon $μ^-$ is bound to a nucleus, has been performed. The measurements yield significantly improved values of the root-mean-square charge radii of the nuclei, owing to the large muon mass, which results in a vastly increased muon wave function overlap with the nucleus. The values of the proton and deuteron radii are 10 and 3 times more accurate than the respective CODATA values, but 7 standard deviations smaller. Data on muonic helium-3 and -4 ions is being analyzed and will give new insights. In future, the (magnetic) Zemach radii of the proton and the helium-3 nuclei will be determined from laser spectroscopy of the 1S hyperfine splittings, and the Lamb shifts of muonic Li, Be and B can be used to improve the respective charge radii.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2016

Slow Muons and Muonium

The Paul Scherrer Institut in Switzerland operates the high intensity proton accelerator facility HIPA. A 590 MeV kinetic energy proton beam of presently up to 2.4 mA is sent to target stations producing pions, muons and neutrons for fundamental and applied physics. The beam power of 1.4 MW provides the world's highest intensities of low momentum muons which can be stopped in low mass targets. Rates of surface muons of up to about $10^8$/s are being provided to various unique precision particle physics experiments. Two feasibility studies are ongoing to considerably improve the available muon beams. The high intensity muon beamline, HiMB, could deliver on the order of $10^{10}$/s surface muons and the stopped muon cooler, muCool, aims at a gain factor of $10^{10}$ in phase space quality while sacrificing only less than 3 orders of magnitude in intensity for low energy $μ^+$. These beams will allow a new generation of precision physics experiments with stopped muons and muonium atoms.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2016

Antimatter gravity with muonium

The gravitational acceleration of antimatter, $\bar{g}$, has never been directly measured and could bear importantly on our understanding of gravity, the possible existence of a fifth force, and the nature and early history of the universe. Three avenues appear feasible for such a measurement: antihydrogen, positronium, and muonium. The muonium measurement requires a novel monoenergetic, low-velocity, horizontal muonium beam directed at an atom interferometer. The precision three-grating interferometer can be produced in silicon nitride or ultrananocrystalline diamond using state-of-the-art nanofabrication. The required precision alignment and calibration at the picometer level also appear to be feasible. With 100 nm grating pitch, a 10% measurement of $\bar{g}$ can be made using some months of surface-muon beam time, and a 1% or better measurement with a correspondingly larger exposure. This could constitute the first gravitational measurement of leptonic matter, of 2nd-generation matter and, possibly, the first measurement of the gravitational acceleration of antimatter.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2015

Geant4 simulation of the PSI LEM beam line: energy loss and muonium formation in thin foils and the impact of unmoderated muons on the $μ$SR spectrometer

The PSI low-energy $μ$SR spectrometer is an instrument dedicated to muon spin rotation and relaxation measurements. Knowledge of the muon beam parameters such as spatial, kinetic energy and arrival-time distributions at the sample position are important ingredients to analyze the $μ$SR spectra. We present here the measured energy losses in the thin carbon foil of the muon start detector deduced from time-of-flight measurements. Muonium formation in the thin carbon foil (10 nm thickness) of the muon start detector also affect the measurable decay asymmetry and therefore need to be accounted for. Muonium formation and energy losses in the start detector, whose relevance increase with decreasing muon implantation energy ($<10$ keV), have been implemented in Geant4 Monte Carlo simulation to reproduce the measured time-of-flight spectra. Simulated and measured time-of-flight and beam spot agrees only if a small fraction of so called "unmoderated" muons which contaminate the mono-energetic muon beam of the $μ$SR spectrometer is introduced. Moreover the sensitivity of the beam size and related upstream-downstream asymmetry for a specially shaped "nose" sample plate has been studied for various beam line settings, which is of relevance for the study of thermal muonium emission into vacuum from mesoporous silica at cryogenic temperatures.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2015

Testing antimatter gravity with muonium

The debate about how antimatter or different antimatter systems behave gravitationally will be ultimately decided by experiments measuring directly the acceleration of various antimatter probes in the gravitational field of the Earth or perhaps redshift effects in antimatter atoms caused by the annual variation of the Sun's gravitational potential at the location of the Earth. Muonium atoms may be used to probe the gravitational interaction of leptonic, second generation antimatter. We discuss the progress of our work towards enabling such experiments with muonium.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2015

Improved X-ray detection and particle identification with avalanche photodiodes

Avalanche photodiodes are commonly used as detectors for low energy x-rays. In this work we report on a fitting technique used to account for different detector responses resulting from photo absorption in the various APD layers. The use of this technique results in an improvement of the energy resolution at 8.2 keV by up to a factor of 2, and corrects the timing information by up to 25 ns to account for space dependent electron drift time. In addition, this waveform analysis is used for particle identification, e.g. to distinguish between x-rays and MeV electrons in our experiment.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2014

Measuring Antimatter Gravity with Muonium

The gravitational acceleration of antimatter, $\bar{g}$, has never been directly measured and could bear importantly on our understanding of gravity, the possible existence of a fifth force, and the nature and early history of the universe. Only two avenues for such a measurement appear to be feasible: antihydrogen and muonium. The muonium measurement requires a novel, monoenergetic, low-velocity, horizontal muonium beam directed at an atom interferometer. The precision three-grating interferometer can be produced in silicon nitride or ultrananocrystalline diamond using state-of-the-art nanofabrication. The required precision alignment and calibration at the picometer level also appear to be feasible. With 100 nm grating pitch, a 10% measurement of $\bar{g}$ can be made using some months of surface-muon beam time, and a 1% or better measurement with a correspondingly larger exposure. This could constitute the first gravitational measurement of leptonic matter, of 2nd-generation matter and, possibly, the first measurement of the gravitational acceleration of antimatter.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2014

Muon cooling: longitudinal compression

A 10 MeV/c $μ^+$ beam was stopped in helium gas of a few mbar in a magnetic field of 5 T. The muon 'swarm' has been efficiently compressed from a length of 16 cm down to a few mm along the magnetic field axis (longitudinal compression) using electrostatic fields. The simulation reproduces the low energy interactions of slow muons in helium gas. Phase space compression occurs on the order of microseconds, compatible with the muon lifetime of 2 $μ$s. This paves the way for preparation of a high quality muon beam.

physics.acc-ph↗

arXiv2013

Measuring Antimatter Gravity with Muonium

We consider a measurement of the gravitational acceleration of antimatter, gbar, using muonium. A monoenergetic, low-velocity, horizontal muonium beam will be formed from a surface-muon beam using a novel technique and directed at an atom interferometer. The measurement requires a precision three-grating interferometer: the first grating pair creates an interference pattern which is analyzed by scanning the third grating vertically using piezo actuators. State-of-the-art nanofabrication can produce the needed membrane grating structure in silicon nitride or ultrananoscrystalline diamond. With 100 nm grating pitch, a 10% measurement of gbar can be made using some months of surface-muon beam time. This will be the first gravitational measurement of leptonic matter, of 2nd-generation matter and, possibly, the first measurement of the gravitational acceleration of antimatter.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2001

A graphite-moderated pulsed spallation ultra-cold neutron source

Proposals exist and efforts are under way to construct pulsed spallation ultra-cold neutron (UCN) sources at accelerator laboratories around the world. At the Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI), Switzerland, and at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), U.S.A., it is planned to use solid deuterium (SD_2) for the UCN production from cold neutrons. The philosophies about how the cold neutrons are obtained are quite different, though. The present proposal describes a third approach which applies a temperature optimized graphite moderator in combination with the SD_2 and qualitatively combines advantages of the different schemes. The scheme described here allows to build a powerful UCN source. Assuming a pulsed 2 mA, 590 MeV proton beam with an average current of 10 microA, one obtains UCN densities in excess of 2000 cm^{-3}, UCN fluxes of about 10^6 cm^{-2} s^{-1}, and total numbers of UCN in excess of 2*10^9 every 800 s.

nucl-ex↗