News Archive 2004
26.11.2004
Experiments at ISOLTRAP at CERN's ISOLDE facility have reached a level of precision where the mass measurements for extremely short-lived radionuclides are significant for fundamental studies that touch upon the very foundations of the Standard Model. Two recently published sets of measurements on neutron-deficient magnesium and rubidium nuclides concern the conserved-vector-current hypothesis of the weak interaction and the unitarity of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) quark-mixing matrix. This press release in the CERN Courier is available here
 17.11.2004
Superconducting magnet was energized
The superconducting magnet with a field strength of B = 7 T was energized. The relative
inhomogeneity of the magnetic field center ΔB/B was determined to be less than 5E-7
in a cylindric volume of a diameter of 2 cm and a length of 1 cm. 14.10.2004
Masses are among the most critical nuclear parameters in nucleosynthesis calculations in astrophysics. The mass of one of the three major waiting points in the astrophysical rp process 72Kr was measured for the first time with the Penning trap mass spectrometer ISOLTRAP. The measurement yielded a relative mass uncertainty of 1.2E-7 (corresponding to 8 keV). 73,74Kr, also needed for astrophysical calculations, were measured with more than 1 order of magnitude improved accuracy. Further information about the impact of our high-precision mass measurements on nucleosynthesis calculations in astrophysics is available here
08.10.2004
Direct high-precision mass measurements on superallowed β-emitters and
their daughters contribute to tests of two fundamental postulates of the
Standard Model: The conserved-vector-current hypothesis of the weak
interaction and the unitarity of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix. A
recent measurement in this context is the determination of the decay
energy of 22Mg(β+)22Na. The mass of 22Mg is in addition of high importance for reliable
calculations in astrophysics, allowing direct comparison of observable
γ-radiation in nova explosions with the yield expected from models.
The publication is available here
20.08.2004
In March this year Dr. K. Blaum received the Gustav-Hertz-Prize 2004 of the German Physical Society "for his research on the measurement of the masses of short-lived atomic nuclei". The masses of nuclei provide insight into the so-called weak interaction - one of the fundamental forces of nature - as well as into the genesis of chemical elements. The Gustav-Hertz-Prize article about his research and recent results are available here
18.08.2004
The exotic nuclide 74Rb, with a half-life of only 65 ms, is the shortest-lived nuclide on which a high-precision mass measurement in a Penning trap has been carried out. 74Rb is a superallowed emitter and decays to 74Kr. Direct mass measurements on mother and daughter nuclei allowed for an experimental determination of the isospin-symmetry-breaking correction for Standard-Model tests. The article is available here
15.08.2004
With the on-line Penning trap mass spectrometer ISOLTRAP, we have developed a mass-separation procedure of sufficient resolving power to isolate particles of a selected isomeric state from an ensemble of short-lived radionuclides. This method allowed us to weigh nuclear excitation energies, first demonstrated for 68Cu. The resulting unique form of ion ensembles opens a large variety of new nuclear-physics experiments. For further reading see
26.05.2004
The mass is one of the most fundamental properties of a nuclide, being a
unique fingerprint, and its measurement contributes to a variety of
fundamental studies including tests of the Standard Model and the weak
interaction. Further reading in english
18.03.2004
Unambiguous identification of copper isomers has been achieved in a
radioactive-beam experiment with ISOLTRAP at ISOLDE/CERN, helping
scientists to get a better understanding what goes on inside nuclei and to learn more
about the personality of the nuclides. Here the press release in english and a link to
the article 16.01.2004
An international team using the Penning trap mass spectrometer ISOLTRAP
at the ISOLDE facility at CERN has performed new high precision
measurements of the mass of short-lived argon isotopes, which provide
important information for weak interaction and Standard Model tests. The
press release is available in
english and in german.
Here a link to the article |
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