Speaker
Description
Radioactive molecules provide an incredible $10^{12}$-fold boost in precision for measuring parity violation in the nuclear weak force [1]. Realizing this potential requires accurate rotational spectroscopy to locate, assign, and control the relevant quantum states. Moreover, the rotational transitions of heavy, short-lived molecules lie in the microwave-to-radio domain, providing a powerful, largely untapped tool for radio astronomy to nucleosynthesis production pathways in space [2]. However, spectroscopic data on such radioactive molecules remain scarce due to low production rates, short lifetimes, and spectral complexity.
To explore these exotic species, we developed a novel ion-trap-based action spectrometer with single-ion sensitivity. The method integrates three techniques: Multi-Reflection Time-of-Flight (MRTOF) ion trap filtering, multi-step photon dissociation for resonance identification, and MRTOF enhancement of spatial resolution of constituent ions with single-ion detection – all within milliseconds. Our first spectroscopic results on SiO+ will be presented, along with our ongoing efforts to automate the setup using an agent-based digital twin.
[1] Karthein et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 133, 033003 (2024)
[2] T. Kaminski et al., A&A 644, A59 (2020)
| Academic level | PhD student |
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