Grant: Subatomic Physics Envelope - Project

The mass of the atomic nucleus is one of the most fundamental properties of such many body systems. Precise knowledge of masses provides for testing and refining of advanced nuclear theory and models and stimulate their further improvements. Masses are key ingredient in the tests of weak interaction studies in nuclear beta-decay, and for sensitive tests of nuclear structure at the extremes. Moreover, in the field of nuclear astro-physics, atomic masses are needed for an understanding of the synthesis of the elements beyond iron in the universe. There has been substantial effort to determine masses accurate and precise for many year, but with the advent of coupling ion traps to radioactive beam (RIB) facilities, the field has been revolutionized. By now most RIB facilities have ion trap based mass measurement systems, and one of the most advanced facilities for mass measurements is TITAN. TITAN (TRIUMF's Ion Trap for Atomic and Nuclear science) is a unique multi-ion trap system installed at the radioactive ion beam facility ISAC. TITAN was designed to carry out mass measurements of very high precision, with dm ~1 keV, (or dm/m < 1-10-8) even for isotopes with short half-lives (T1/2~10 ms) and for isotopes very far from the valley of stability, hence with low production yields. With these proven capabilities and the proposed improvements TITAN is geared up to reach the required precision for the mass measurements of the different high priority experimental programs. At present, 11 TRIUMF EEC experiments for TITAN mass measurements are accepted with high or medium high priority, in the fields of Nuclear Structure, Nuclear Astrophysics, and Tests of Fundamental Symmetries. The uniqueness of the system lies in the combination of different kind of ion traps, a combination nowhere else available. Key for the success of TITAN are its fast operation cycle, and the capability to go to higher charge states from the TITAN EBIT.